Our dear friend, Dolores Edwards, who will be remembered in a memorial service Friday morning at First Baptist Church, Rockport, was a Missionary Nurse who assisted her husband, Robert, in surgery at unlikely places while serving in Colombia. She gave an account in her book, "A Drop In The Bucket" of one such surgical setting. I want to share it with you.
" In Sucre the people made us a surgery table by burying four bamboo poles into the dirt floor, placing a split bamboo table across them, and then covering this with a woven bamboo mat. The height and width were just right for us. It was the first time we did not have to lean over and suffer terrible backaches at the end of the day. The room had a dirt floor, thatch roof, and bamboo walls. We had chickens, dogs, and pigs running under the operating table. There was a hen that was accustomed to laying her eggs in the corner of the room and every time that the door opened she'd run to go to her corner - and one where we soaked our instruments in sterilizing solution.We were afraid that she would contaminate everything so we were constantly running her out. She was so persistent that we finally had to remove our solutions and let her in. She laid her egg, cackled her triumph, and left happy - until the next time. We had to learn how to be flexible in these circumstances. The bonus was that we had a fresh egg for breakfast."
I doubt any of this was mentioned in nursing or med school. Such was often the life of medical missionaries going where the people were in need. It takes a special calling to do those kind of medical events. Robert and Dolores Edwards had that special calling.
