Emergency surgery in the Amazon

Soon after Taiwan Root arrived in Huampami a young girl with a facial wound was brought to be treated. Five days earlier, while playing outside of her family’s house, she had fallen, and a tree branch had punctured her cheek. Her mother attempted to heal the injury using traditional methods, but this proved to be inadequate. The swelling had increased, and an infection had set in.
When the doctors examined the girl, they noted that the entire right side of her face was swollen, and that a large splinter remained implanted in her cheek. The infection had rapidly progressed, and the doctors knew that they had to operate immediately. Unfortunately, the medicine that Taiwan Root had brought from Taipei had been lost by the airline, somewhere between Los Angeles and Lima. The little girl could not wait for the medicine to arrive in Peru.
The doctors had no choice but to go ahead with the operation, using the little anesthetic that was available. The girl’s father helped forcibly restrain her, holding down her small arms, while four doctors removed the splintered branch from her cheek. The girl’s pain caused her to shriek and howl, all the while attempting to break free of her father’s grasp. These unorthodox conditions caused the operation to take much longer than it normally would, as the doctors had to be careful to minimize the girl’s discomfort.
The swelling began to go down almost immediately after the operation, and even with the limited antibiotics available, the infection quickly regressed. The girl’s mother and father stayed by her side while she recuperated in the small hospital. Her mother told the doctors that she “thanked god that they came when they did.” After a hospital stay of only a few days the girl was able to return home with her family.