Chapter 29 – Fatigue
Maura, Shannon and Shelley were all suffering from extreme fatigue. Shannon and Shelley hadn't woken up. Their bodies kept them asleep. Maura didn't know whether she should be thankful for that or worried. She was so tired, she was having problems staying awake. However, when she fell asleep, she often woke up only a short time later feeling even worse than when she went to sleep.
They had just arrived at the regional hospital and were being treated for extreme fatigue, dehydration and starvation, after being flown in from a remote village location where they had been working with MSF.
Maura and two of her coworkers, Shannon and Shelley, were found in a small village that had been attacked and burned to the ground. The MSF workers that found them hadn't thought anyone had survived the attack. They were there making their weekly supply run, dropping off supplies that the team of doctors and their staff would need for the upcoming week. They didn't know that there was a small out building on the outskirts of the village.
When Annabelle, one of the nurses on the supply truck, heard a scream and noticed a body down the road, she ran and found Dr. Isles. She knew Dr. Isles was one of the doctors that had been assigned to work at the village. She knew that Maura was treating the women of the village and ran a pregnancy clinic.
Maura was unconscious when she got to her and soon found out that she was suffering from dehydration. She administered an IV and stayed with Maura until she was taken by helicopter to a hospital. The three women had each received a cocktail of medication from the medics during their helicopter flight. Maura had coded once and the medics brought her back.
Maura was in the worse condition of the three patients. Apparently, Shannon and Shelley had slept quite a bit while Maura had been awake and worrying about all of them in the out building. The stress had taken a toll on Maura's body. She needed to rest. The medics gave her a small dose of sedative to help her sleep while they flew to the hospital.
It took over an hour to get to the hospital and the three women were immediately taken away once the helicopter landed. The medics had annotated the women's charts and had verbally told the doctors as they ran alongside the gurneys. Once the three women were admitted the helicopter crew left, hoping that the women would make a full recovery.
Maura woke up several times while at the hospital screaming. She was having nightmares. The doctors gave her a sedative to help her sleep. Her body needed to recover. She was too weak to feed herself so she had been given nutrients through her IV. The doctor did not want to put a feeding tube in her, as she still needed to be fully examined. Going without food and water for as long as she did could cause internal damage.
When the sedative wore off, Maura was only able to stay awake for short spurts as she was so fatigued. She was able to find out that Shannon and Shelley had survived and were being treated at the same hospital. The doctor told her when she was better, she would be able to see them. That brought a smile to Maura's face. The doctor didn't feel comfortable telling her that she had coded in flight and that she was actually the worse of the three women.
Maura curled up and tried to sleep, however, visions of what had happened to the villagers kept creeping into her thoughts. She could still hear the screaming as the villagers were being attacked. She needed to calm down, her body needed to heal. She wished Annabelle was there with her. She had a calming effect on her. She needed a calming effect to help her sleep so she could recover. She wanted to recover, she wanted to live, however, she didn't want to keep having these nightmares.
Once she was stabilized and well enough for the trip, she would be flown back to the United States. The doctor told her that Shannon and Shelley would be going with her and that they would keep the three of them together if at all possible. That pleased Maura, she liked the two young people. They had been so much help trying to find food for all of them. They were top notch aids and Maura would be sure to let MSF know that.
She had run across some aids that she would not want to work with again. They had been given survival pamphlets to keep on their bodies and she met several aids that thought that was stupid. They didn't want to carry around a survival pamphlet. She made sure that those aids did not work with her.
She wanted people that followed the advice that was being given to them. The survival pamphlets could be useful if you were caught in a situation and needed the information. Maura had no idea that she in fact would be in such a situation and she was thankful that she, Shannon and Shelley all had their survival pamphlets and had listened carefully to the survival presentation that had been taught prior to being sent to the village.
Three days after arriving at the hospital, Maura, Shannon and Shelley were deemed well enough to travel back to the United States. Before they departed, Maura had a visitor. Annabelle had found out where Maura had been taken and she was able to visit with her. Maura was still weak but she tried to stay awake so that she could visit with her. Annabelle hugged Maura and Maura broke out in tears.
It was because of this woman that she was alive and Maura would never forget that. Annabelle had heard her scream and came to her rescue. Annabelle had stayed with her as long as she could until the helicopter took Maura away.
Maura's fatigue didn't allow them to visit long, but Annabelle stayed with Maura when she fell asleep. She was there when Maura woke up and stayed with her until she was taken away so that she could board her airplane that would take her back to the United States to continue her recovery.
(To be continued in Chapter, 30, Recovery, which will be posted on October 30th)
