AUTHOR: Becky Gates, her husband David, and two of their five children - Carlos, and Kristopher, work together with other volunteers in a medical aviation program in the jungles of Guyana, South America.

Dear family and friends,

One afternoon near the last of April, David took off for Paruima. He had just told me by radio that he had Paruima in sight and would be clear for landing when I noticed a commotion down by the river. It was a boat from San Juan bringing a critically ill patient, a young lady in her early 20’s. She was unconscious (had been for almost 24 hours), burning up with fever, her eyes rolled back and her arms and legs were stiff. I raced back to the radio, but David had already landed and turned off his set. I called the Pastor. Fortunately he still had his radio on. I told him to please tell David to fly back as soon as possible for this medical emergency. The mission compound is about 25 minutes from the airstrip so I figured it would be close to an hour before David got back. I grabbed my thermometer, blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, a bucket of cold water and some rags and ran up to the medical post where they had taken her so she would be close to the runway. The place was crowded with curious onlookers. Quickly I took her vital signs–everything was OK except her temp which was over 105. Continue reading ‘Emergencies, Superstition and Death’