Within 24 hours
Vienna Chan

Within 24 hours of arriving at Chongqing, an accident happened. Josh and Ron decided to have a basketball game with our escort, Blair, and his friends. Chin and I were visiting MSI colleagues at their apartment meeting with about 15 students for English corner.

By 9:30 pm, the phone rang at Johnny’s place. The students and us were just starting to have an intense conversation about purpose and meaning of life. I heard my name, wondering who was this person on the other end. I picked up the phone. It was Bob, the assisting director of Foreign Affairs. “Josh slipped and fell at the basketball field. I think he hurts himself very badly. I am going to take him to the hospital.” said Bob. “What?” I replied. I heard some gasps from my unwanted audience behind me. Chin and I walked out immediately thanking our hosts and taking our impolite exit.

Within minutes, we were on our way to the hospital. Josh was in agony with his right elbow resting on his right leg. “Josh, can I check your shoulder?” I asked, thinking that my past medical training may help a bit. He replied bluntly, “No. It hurts too much.” Immediately, I guessed that he has dislocated his shoulder, but the fear that he may fracture some bones worried me. So, we prayed quietly in the vehicle, not wanting to offend any of our escorts.

We finally arrived. Chin and Blair were trying to contact the insurance company by phone in the hospital. None of the phone can make a long distance call. They left immediately to find another phone as the medical insurance policy stated that he needed to report before claiming any medical expanses.

Finally, the doctor arrived. I used my broken and Cantonese-contaminated Mandarin to explain to them that he needed an X-ray right away. After the X-ray was taken, Josh was then wheeled back to the emergency room, as they were debating whether to admit him to the surgery ward or not. Finally, the nurse motioned us to go. With 4 men, we wheeled him up to the surgery ward. The diagnosis was dislocation, as expected. “We might need to put him under general anesthetic, as he is a big man.” I tried to interpret for Josh. Immediately, Josh said, “my aunt could not wake up from general anesthetic; we have a genetic disposition in our family called ‘malignant hyperthermia’. If I am going to be put under general, I need a special kind.” I tried my very best to convey the message to the doctor, they looked at me puzzled. I had no way to translate “malignant hypothermia” to the doctor and therefore asked if they had a bilingual dictionary. But the answer was no. So, we prayed and waited. The doctor called the anesthetic department. “Well, we had a Canadian who dislocated his shoulder, can we put him under general?” he asked. “Well, when did you last eat?” “We just finished our meal about 2 hours ago,” I said. The school had kindly invited us to this wonderful dinner that we all filled up to the brim.

“No way, we need to wait for 6 to 8 hours before we can put him under general,” said the doctor. The translation and conversation bounced back and forth. Finally, the doctor said, let’s try local anesthetic and see. “We might not be able to complete the reduction,” the doctor said. Josh nodded. We all went out and gave them some privacy. A few more interns arrived. Altogether there were 5 men. I could not see from standing outside. We could only pray. Within minutes, we heard this groaning scream coming out from the room. I pushed the door opened slightly and asked, “Is it done?” One of the interns rushed out to get some more supplies, stating, “No.”

We waited more. Another scream!! I pushed the door opened again and heard the doctors discussing in Mandarin, “we can’t do it, he is too tense. He needs to relax.” I yelled in English immediately, “Josh, you need to relax. We are praying for you. Just trust the Lord. Let the doctors do whatever they want. Just relax!” Then, I closed the door again. Chin, Ron and I were praying. Our escorts were pacing up and down, not knowing what else they can do. Blair was so guilt stricken that he squatted on the floor and covered his face. Ron went over and rubbed his back and assured him, “it was not your fault.” I echoed, “It was only an accident.”

Within minutes, the door was pushed open. I saw the grin on the face of the doctors. They said, “It is done.” “Praise the Lord,” I shouted. Then, the doctor indicated that Josh needed to keep his shoulder in a flexed position for the coming 3 weeks. They then used a strip of cloth to wrap around his chest and his arm hoping to immobilize the newly relocated joint. But within a few minutes, those strips of clothes fell off. I looked at Josh’s miserable state, feeling so sorry and yet praising God for His healing hand.

Looking around, Josh finally stood up and thanked everybody. We thanked everybody and dragged our over-exhausted bodies back to our apartment. I could not sleep but thank the Lord for his answer to our prayers. I could see the seed of God’s love and presence was planted Blair’s heart.