Alone in Paradise

Paku is pretty much alone in the world. Hi is widowed. He has grown children, but they don't have anything to do with him. I don't know why not, but I realize that there is probably a lot of history that I have no clue to. All I know is that he's a nice old man who lives alone, tends his own garden, cooks his own food, and looks out for himself. He says his house is old and broken, but that he's too old to build a new one.

He has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, probably caused by years of breathing smoke from the fire in his cook house. He came to the hospital in a severe flare-up of his COPD, very short of breath, wheezing and weak. He responded well to treatment, but I've been reluctant to discharge him until I know that he's very stable. I don't know how hard it might be for him to get back if he should need it. So I kept him longer than I would usually keep a similar patient who had lots of help and support. I even orded a daily "dose" of Nutrition Soup, a concoction that the hospital cook serves to patients that the doctors have identified as nutritionally compromised, in addition to the routine daily helping of sweet potato that all patients get.

It's been difficult trying to teach him to use an inhaler, but that is one of the prerequisites I set for his discharge. Today he was doing quite well, using only the inhalers for a few days, and wanted to go home. So I discharged him, asking him to come back and see us in 2 weeks. He wrapped his few personal items up in his bed sheet, and headed home.

The hospital chaplain is from Paku's home village. I'll ask him to check on him in a week or so. In the meantime, you can pray for this lonely old man. I believe that his stay at Nazarene Hospital was a time of encouragement and uplift emotionally and spiritually in his life, as well as a time of improvement in his health.

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