Little Wonders

I read an article today about a woman who delivered her pre-term infant herself. What makes this more exciting was that she didn’t know she was pregnant. She was on a 5 hour flight from SLC to Hawaii and bad cramping went into the bathroom caught the baby as it came out. She called for help. The flight attendants asked if there was a doctor on board, there was, he attended her. He was a Family Medicine specialist. He helped the woman get stable and yet his main focus was on the tiny infant weighing less than 3 pounds. He knew he had to get the baby warm. There also were 3 nurses on the flight, who got up and came to see if they could help what ever medical emergency was happening. They were Neonatal Specialist nurses. They went into super nurse mode and with the help of many people they got the baby warmed up. They knew an infant so young had no way to sustain body heat. Someone gave them a sock to use as a cap to keep the baby’s head warm. Another provided a blanket, others gave diapers, in all they were able to sustain the infant. He was so cold he really didn’t cry and they were concerned for his oxygen level. They were in the sky, over the Pacific, there was no place for an emergency landing. Somehow though because of their expertise they were able to take care of the situation. Two of them worked on the baby and one helped the mother post-partum finish her delivery. When they landed, the baby cried and the whole plane broke out in a cheer. They got the Mom and baby off and to the hospital immediately where both were well. The baby because of his prematurity would be in the hospital several weeks, but was healthy.

Why was there a family medicine doctor on that plane? Why were the three neonatal nurses on that plane? One later said it was the highlight of her whole career. What an amazing story.

It would be easy to credit the great Cosmic Coincidence Coordinator for getting that group there. Was it an act of God or an act of Good? Without those particular trained people we may well have had a very different outcome. But we didn’t. We had the best story I’ve read in a while. They all went to see the mom at the end of their vacations and have a photo of them all together. That’s a picture that will be on that baby’s dresser forever.

Would that we knew that there would be help when we needed it. So many in the past year have been relying on the kindness of strangers, doctors and nurses in the COVID wards of hospitals across the country and around the world. The multiple stores of people saying an iPad good bye to a love one about to be intibated, not knowing if they would ever recover, have torn at our hearts. Pictures of people leaving the wards with the hospital staff cheering them on. Photos of the nurses and doctors, their faces scared and bruised from the masks they wear 10 hours at a time have given us a new appreciation of their sacrificial nature. Nurses and doctors who hold the hands of the dying so they are not alone as they draw their final breath, again and again being the one with them.

Now we hear stories that cut to our bone about the utter tragedy and chaos in India where the hospitals are completely overwhelmed with patients. We hear about 2-3 in a bed. We hear about people dying for lack of O2, we hear about O2 trucks being hijacked and the oxygen stolen and sold to the highest bidder. We hear about lack of vaccine. We know of the masses who live in overcrowded houses or hovels.

No doubt this kind of tragedy is also unfolding in parts of the world we don’t hear about. In small rural villages around the world where people have no access to care. No vaccine even offered.

This cuts into the wonder I have for those here who have refused the vaccine. I wonder about those who yell at parents for putting masks on their young children calling them abusers. I wonder at people who scoff at any adult wearing a mask. What difference does it make to them whether I wear a mask or not. It’s not hurting them.

And I wonder, if we credit God with putting a physician and three specialist nurses on that plane that saved that woman and her baby, where is God in the rest of this?

God is in the hearts of those who hear the stories of suffering and work to change the situation. God is in the hearts of those who give financially to secure charities that are reaching out in their own ways to make the chaos settle. God is in the leaders and political individuals who have the ability to direct my tax money at healing the masses and feeding the masses in the middle of this. God is…

Rest well tonight my friends. Know that we lie down in the arms of God who knows us and loves us and urges us to be better tomorrow than we were today.

Plumb sings a song about this God Shaped Hole. You can listen to it on YouTube.

“We are God’s hands…”

God abide with you

@Bobbie giltz mcgarey, scottsdale 5.8.21