Operating with limited resources often presents many challenges, especially when patients have significant underlying disease.
About a month ago, a middle-aged man with chronic liver disease presented to the hospital with a strangulated inguinal hernia (meaning that a small loop of intestines had become trapped in his hernia and the tissue had begun to die). I took him to surgery to fix the problem at hand, but his body lacked the reserve to be able to overcome the illness and he passed away a week later.
In the first few days after surgery, he had been doing ok. I asked the chaplains to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the patient. After a long conversation, the patient told the chaplains that he wanted to accept the gift of grace that Jesus offers.
My heart aches when a patient dies, but I praise the Lord for his faithfulness. All my patients will die eventually. This patient reminded me that the reason we are here is to introduce people to the Savior.