The Deaf Shall Hear

My best friend from college, Dave Brost, served on the medical team that visited CGA a few weeks ago. This is a post from his blog...

Have you ever just stood in awe of how mighty God is and proclaimed that it could only be God alone who works all things out in His way? Every now and then we get to be participants in these stories.

"The blind receive sight,
the lame walk,
those that have leprosy are cured,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the good news is preached to the poor."
Matthew 11:5

This is the story of my favorite patient during my time in Kenya. Her name is Anna.

I first met Anna at the end of the first day of clinic. She was my second to last patient. Her triage sheet showed that her chief complaint was, "Not being able to hear out of the right ear since she was two years old." Anna was now seven. She couldn't speak English nor could her mother. So through the interpreter her mother explained that she could hear good out of her left ear but not the right. She had no pain or drainage from the ear. Looking through my otoscope I examined the ear and could immediately tell that something was wrong. My initial impression was that there was a beetle like bug in the ear canal. Usually I don't clean the wax out of patients' ears because it can be a long process and we didn't have the best equipment available. However, since she seemed to have a foreign body in the ear I thought there was a better chance for removal. I had her lay down and I placed ear wax removal drops in her ear for about 15 minutes while I saw my last patient. I returned and flushed her ear with water using a suction bulb. I also had a small soft tool for wax removal. Unfortunately after about 20 minutes of working there wasn't any change in how her ear looked and nothing was able to be removed. Fortunately it didn't cause her any discomfort. I had her go home with an ear wax removal kit and instructions to put the drops in her ear 4 times a day. She was to return in two days.

That night I thought about Anna and the other possibilities about what might be going on in her ear. I wondered if this could be some type of tumor such as a cholesteatoma. If that were the case it would probably not be advisable to be digging in her ear.

Anna returned to the clinic two days later. I put the drops in her ear again and had her lay down just as the time before. This time when I first examined her ear I could tell that there was something black at the very entrance of her ear canal. Excitedly I scooped it out and recognized it as some type of small black seed. Immediately I was relieved that this was a foreign body and not a tumor! After a few more ear washes a second seed came sliding out.

I hoped that this would have solved the problem. However, when I re-examined the ear I could tell that it was still abnormal. I could not distinguish if there were more foreign bodies or if she had a very abnormal eardrum. I flushed several more times with no success and most disappointing was the fact that she could not hear any better. At this point I was discouraged but did not want to give up hope. I had her leave again with the same instructions to come back on our last day in clinic. I kept thinking about Anna through the next couple of days wondering even if I could remove all of the material from her ear canal if she would be able to hear anyway. The thought came up that this could have possibly been some type of witch doctor treatment to put seeds in the ear. Maybe she couldn't hear to begin with and this was suggested as a possible treatment. If that was the case, all of this work would have been in vain.

Anna returned as the last patient on our last day of clinic. The ear had not changed upon examination. I flushed the ear several times and attempted to remove material from the ear with my tool again. After another 15 minutes there were no results and I had resigned to the fact that I wasn't going to be able to fix her hearing. I was more convinced that this was a much bigger problem than just some seeds in the ear. I discussed with her and her mother the possibility of being able to see an ENT doctor at one of the larger cities in the area in hopes that they might offer some further insight. Just prior to leaving we decided to flush the ear one last time. To my utter amazement and only by the grace of God this time it worked! A small piece of brown material began to exit the ear canal. I scooped it out and recognized it was half of a bean. Amazing!

I looked in the ear canal and saw it to be completely clear. I could see the ear drum completely and it looked relatively normal. I began to test her hearing by rubbing my fingers together near her ear and she pulled her head away as it seemed incredibly loud to her. She and her mother confirmed that she could hear and were overwhelmed with joy.

What an amazing God we serve!