Anxiously, I pressed my way through the crowd surrounding the 18-year-old boy lying under his house.

“Doctor Tim and Teacher Greg are coming soon,” I explained. “But I have some strong medicine to put on Amad’s snakebite. Please get some water so we can wash the clay off of his leg.”

“No! Your medicine is bad!” an old lady’s shrill voice rang out. “You have the wrong medicine!”
Amad’s sister quietly explained to me that the traditional healers (witch doctors) were already there and were getting ready to treat Amad.
Suddenly, I realized what I had done. In my anxiety to save Amad’s life, I hadn’t even considered that they may already be treating him. I had barged in and taken over without a second thought. Still, Amad’s life was in the balance, and I knew I had to help his family understand quickly. Every minute counted.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” I exclaimed to the traditional healer. “Did you treat him already? The clay is very good medicine, but I have some medicine that is even stronger. Dr. Tim told me on the phone to use this medicine,” I said holding up my bowl of charcoal. “Please, will you help me put it on?”
“No, no. It’s the wrong medicine. You don’t know how to treat him. I have the right medicine already!” the woman insisted.

Soon Amad’s family was arguing back and forth about who should treat him. Some insisted that the traditional healer should treat his leg and some were saying that my medicine was good. After all, it came from America! I tried to explain how the charcoal absorbs the poison, and I pleaded with them to let me go ahead with it. After a long five minutes, Amad’s father and sister made a decision to let me use my medicine.

Quickly, we washed Amad’s leg, and I applied a charcoal poultice. I also gave him charcoal water to drink, and we changed the poultice every 10 minutes. During one of these ten-minute lulls, I told some of the family sitting around that I wanted to pray for Amad because God loves us and wants to help us. I bowed my head and prayed aloud in English. The family acted a bit awkward and discussed my prayer as I prayed.

Just minutes earlier, I had been sitting on my front steps talking to a friend when we saw men running down the road carrying someone in a hammock. My friend told me a teenage boy had been bitten by a snake while he was working in his bush garden. I had called Greg who was in the next village with our friend, Tim Reisenburger, an emergency-room doctor who had come to visit us and do some short clinics. They said they would be there soon, and Tim told me how to do the charcoal poultices.

After what seemed an eternity, Greg and Dr. Tim arrived with more medical supplies. Before giving any kind of further treatment, Dr. Tim asked if he could pray for Amad. He prayed a simple prayer for help and healing. Since Amad’s leg was swollen from his knee down, we started a full-leg poultice, which we changed often. Greg and I were soon covered with charcoal. Dr. Tim gave Amad some medicine to slow his heart rate and calm him down and also medicine for the pain.

As we worked, we tried to get as much information as we could about the kind of snake that had bitten Amad. Since we weren’t familiar with the different kinds of poisonous snakes, we didn’t know how serious the bite was. We wanted to get Amad to a place that could give him antivenin. We thought surely the hospital in Chhlong would have some. We felt it was crucial that he get further medical treatment. But it wasn’t that simple. One of the traditional healers kept insisting that it was the wrong thing to do. Amad needed to stay at home so he could have the traditional treatments. One of Amad’s brothers in particular was adamant that Amad must stay home. Greg, Dr. Tim and Amad’s family had a long discussion on the matter with lots of arguing between family members about what they should do. (One thing we have discovered while here is that people are terrified to go to a hospital or clinic. Sometimes, even if money isn’t an issue, they would rather stay at home and watch a family member die!)

At last, after much arm twisting, the family agreed that Amad should go. Greg went to Chhlong to ask for an ambulance. The hospital in Chhlong informed him that they didn’t have antivenin, and that the town of Kracheh (an hour’s drive) would have better medicine for snakebites. So off they all went into the night—Amad, some family members, Dr. Tim and Greg following on his motorcycle.
Things took a turn for the worse in Kracheh. They didn’t have antivenin there either! Soon, Amad began to bleed through his skin. Bruises began appearing on his body, and his urine turned reddish-brown. The hemotoxin in the venom was interfering with his blood’s ability to coagulate, making him bleed internally and externally. There was nothing the doctors could do to stop it. They didn’t have the right coagulant medicines. If Amad didn’t get further medical help, he would probably die.

Dr. Tim and Greg understood the urgency of the situation and explained to the family that Amad must go to Phnom Penh as soon as possible so they could stop the bleeding. But, once again, the family didn’t want to go. They wanted to bring him home so the traditional healers could do their treatments on him. They were extremely fearful of taking him to Phnom Penh. So the discussions and arguing raged again. Greg finally told them that he and Tim couldn’t decide for them, and they would need to decide together as a family. At last, with great protests from some family members, it was decided that Amad would go to Phnom Penh.

To make a long story short, Amad pulled through. Praise God! But every day that he was in Phnom Penh, his family was constantly calling us and other family members in the village saying that the doctors weren’t helping Amad and weren’t giving him the right medicine. They wanted him to come home right then. But every day, we were able to hold them off a bit longer by saying that we would come and help pay the bills and help him get back home, but only after the doctor had told us that he was ready. After three days, the family brought him home anyway. Amad was still very sick, but at least his blood was clotting. After about five weeks, he was able to begin walking again, though his leg was still swollen.

Little did we know how God would answer our prayers when we asked Him to use Dr. Tim’s time with us to build bridges and to open up doors of trust. The village chief later told Greg that the snake that had bitten Amad is called an elephant snake because one bite can kill an elephant! He said that he had seen ten people bitten by this snake, and all ten had died despite the traditional healer’s treatments. Amad’s family has since become warm and open to us. They now realize that Amad would have died if he had stayed in the village. When talking about it with them, we always give thanks and praise to God for saving Amad’s life.

The night before Dr. Tim had to head back to the States, the village chief came to our home to present us with a letter of appreciation. It was a letter written on behalf of the whole village thanking us and Dr. Tim for the help we are giving to their village. Over and over in different ways, the letter spoke of our good, kind hearts.
Praise God! The fragrance of Christ is beginning to waft out over this village, and people are beginning to be drawn to it.

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