Lots and lots of medical doctors stay at Shiloh.  They come out to Cameroon to do short term medical work with various and sundry hospitals, or to do medical mission work  directly with missionaries.  We have the privilege of providing housing for some of these doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel.  They often spend their first night in country at Shiloh, and may even come back and spend their last night here.  These are lovely people with hearts as big as all out doors.  We love to listen to their stories.  Of all the hundreds and hundreds of stories we have heard, this one tops them all.  We simply have to share it with you!

She  was coming to work in a hospital in Ngaoundere.  Her fellow German doctor friend, whom she was coming to work with, has been staying at Shiloh for years and is a good friend of ours, too.  He made reservations for her, but a few hours before she was due to arrive, emailed to say she had missed her plane and was trying to re-book another flight.  What kind of doctor misses their flight, we wondered??  But life at Shiloh is fast paced so we quickly forgot about her and moved on.  And then yesterday she arrived at Shiloh to spend her last night in country with us.  And out spilled her story.

It all started the day she was to fly from Germany to Cameroon.  As she was leaving her house to go to the airport, the good doctor discovered that her passport was missing.  Missing?  How could this be?  She's highly organized, has traveled extensively, and never misplaces her passport.  A frantic search ultimately turned up the missing passport, but by then she had missed her flight.  Since it was her fault that she was not on the plane, she got to "eat" that ticket.  Her travel agent began searching for the next available flight to Cameroon.  Her agent found an available seat on a flight leaving Germany two days later, but it was prohibitively expensive.  The doctor decided to take this ticket since she was urgently needed at the hospital in Ngaoundere.  Her travel agent said "God must want you on that flight for some reason."  Which turned out to be quite an understatement.

With five hours of flight time left to go, an announcement came over the P.A. system.  "Is there a doctor on the plane?"  Our new friend immediately identified herself as a doctor and the adventure began.  It turns out there was a young Cameroonian lady on the plane who was suddenly experiencing sever stomach pain.  Upon initial examination, the doctor realized she would need a private place to do more in-depth examining.  The flight attendants were wonderfully cooperative, and quickly set up a make shift screened off area in the first class compartment.  The doctor soon discovered that the slender young lady had a slightly bulging stomach, so asked if there was any possibility that she might be pregnant.  The lady said yes, she was 26 weeks pregnant, but had just been to see her doctor and had been cleared to take this trip.  This was not her first pregnancy, and delivery was a long ways off, so the doctor felt she had plenty of time to return to Cameroon to visit her family and get back to Europe before the anticipated delivery.  Thought she felt she "couldn't be in labor" the doctor determined that the stomach pain, that was now coming every ten minutes, was indeed labor.  Being an anesthesiologist and an emergency room doctor, this was outside her area of expertise.  While it was a true "emergency" she felt she needed some help.  The flight attendant put out another announcement over the P.A. system.  "Is there a midwife on the plane?"  Soon an American obstetrician showed up.  He did a pelvic and discovered this young lady was 7 cm. dilated.  A premature baby was indeed being born.  The American OB/GYN, with visions of "law suit" dancing in his head, was reluctant to take charge, so our German friend remained the doctor in charge.  She quickly ordered the pilot to land the plane so they could get this lady to a hospital where her soon-to-be-born child could receive all the help it was going to need.  Landing the plane involved turning the plane around and heading back to Spain.  Many passengers began shouting.  They were very angry to have their plans upset.  Our new friend was horrified at people's selfish reaction to this emergency.  The plane landed safely in Spain, the paramedics were waiting, the lady was taken off the plane, and thirty minutes later the pilot got word that she had delivered a healthy baby boy who would live.  The German doctor was so relieved to learn that she HAD made the right decision.  

Meanwhile, the pilot and crew gave her a seat in first class as their way of saying "thank you."  Shortly after she settled into her new seat, a flight attendant came and got her.  There was another medical emergency.  An older Cameroonian lady was spitting up bright red blood.   This emergency fell squarely into our friend's area of medical expertise.  She determined that the lady had one of two problems.  If it was the one, it wasn't too serious.  She could safely continue on to Cameroon and see a doctor there the following day.  However, if it was the other, she would be "dead and cold" as the doctor put it, before the plane arrived in Cameroon.  So our new friend told the pilot to order another ambulance, and the lady was quickly taken off to the hospital.  This time the pilot and crew invited the German doctor to come into the cockpit and take a seat.  She got to stay there for takeoff.  She reports that it was an exciting and memorable experience!

When the taxi came to Shiloh to take our new friend to the airport to begin her journey back home to Germany, we wished her an uneventful flight home, the kind we always hope to have.  We've had every kind of eventful flight imaginable, but nothing that rivals her story!