Esther Video post surgery

We received a video update from Esther today!!! Some of you reading this may not know who Esther is, but she is someone I have come to care very much about. I first met her when I went to Southern Sudan with a friend of mine, Vernon Burger, and his church Stonegate Fellowship. Vernon and his wife had raised money to open up an orphanage there, and I came to do a medical/dental clinic as the children first moved into it. While I was doing a physical exam on Esther, I noticed she had a horrible heart murmur. It was so loud you could put your ear even a few inches away from her chest and could hear it. No stethoscope needed! I questioned her on how she felt, and she explained then that she had chest pain with exertion and shortness of breath. I knew something was wrong then, and decided, Lord willing, to find some help for her. I knew she at least needed more testing done to determine what exactly was wrong. There was nowhere nearby where she lived that could do this testing, and so the search began.

As the years from then to now went by and I searched for a way to get her some medical help, I became friends with Esther during other opportunities I had to serve in Sudan. I learned that she loves to sing. I learned that as she is the oldest girl at the orphanage that she is like a mother to them. When they are sick they crawl in her lap, when they need help doing something, they go to her. I watched her display a servant's heart. She wants to become a nurse and work at an orphanage like the one she is living in.

Last spring, I was discussing with a doctor friend of mine, that knew some doctors who worked with World Medical Mission and the Children's Heart Project areas of Samaritan's Purse. He put me in contact with the director of the Children's Heart Project and I requested there assistance for Esther. Praise God that Samaritan's Purse had doctors in Kampala, Uganda, and Esther was able to go there to have testing done to determine her diagnosis. Esther was diagnosed with having a hole in between the ventricles of her heart (the two lower chambers). They put her on the list as a possible candidate for their heart surgery program where they brought children with needs from around the world to the United States for surgery. So the process began to get Esther a passport and a visa.

When weren't for sure but had heard that we might have trouble getting Esther a visa to come in to the United States. However, we didn't need to even worry about that as I got an email from Samaritan's Purse saying they were sending a team of cardiothoracic surgeons to Kampala, Uganda and had Esther as a candidate for surgery there. Esther went to Kampala on the 25th of September, was examined by the surgeons on October the 6th, and was operated on October 10th! You see in the video that she is healing very well, and by now is probably out of the hospital. Praise God for all he has done! She is still in Kampala recovering and will be there for a few more weeks. Then she will return to Uganda every so many months for follow up. Mike is going to be able to see her we he goes to Sudan November 3rd.

Please continue to keep Esther and her healing process in your prayers! Thank you!