Eye Surgery

We were in Zap one day and one of the Elders had a huge boil under his eye. It looked so sore and uncomfortable. We finally decided to take him back to Donetsk with us to let Doctor Nelson do his thing. When we arrived at the Nelson’s apartment there were other missionaries who wanted to observe the operation. Doctor Nelson made a small incision into the boil and then took an instrument and told us he was now going to rupture the pus sack. We were not prepared for the after effects of the pus and blood coming out of the wound. The pus kind of flew, gushed, and exploded out of the cut under the eye. A few missionaries captured the event with a camera. I don’t think I had my video camera yet otherwise I would probably have been stupid enough to video tape it. Needless to say with Doctors Nelson’s steady hand and good medical techniques the Elder survived and has no scar. One wintry night we received a call that two Elders had been riding home in a taxi and had been hit head on by another car and that we needed to go to the emergency hospital in Donetsk. We arrived late at night and were greeted by Doctor Nick and Doctor Syme. The one Elder was OK with just a few bruises but the other one had an awful looking eye. We watched as the Ukrainian doctor was examining his eye with equipment that looked like it was 90 years old. We were told she was a good doctor and she seemed to be OK. The next day we took a picture of the Elder with all that green stuff the Ukrainians used on cuts. We were worried that he might have some damage to his eye lid but he recovered fully. To this day, he has just a little scar which could be used as a topic of discussion at any party - a manly scar - wounded during the call of Duty with the Army of God.