I remember vividly the first patient I attended to during house job, a 2 year old boy with spastic cerebral palsy. He was also a known seizure disorder patient, all resulting from the severe perinatal asphyxia he suffered at birth. This episode of admission was precipitated by sepsis and he was beginning to have more frequent seizures. His intravenous line was becoming a problem as regards to siting.
My medical officer spent over an hour trying to site this child’s intravenous line but the child kept on having frequent spasms that made it harder. The spasms were so frequent associated with clenching of the teeth and the child looked like he need urgent anticonvulsants. We kept struggling to keep the limb in place so that we may be successful with our line siting yet no success. We kept at it for over an hour without any luck.
The father of the child walked in on us trying to site a line for his son and he reached out to pet his son. The moment the father carried his son the unexpected happened. The child became very quiet and all the spasms stopped. The father’s touched worked better than any sedative or anticonvulsant we could think of giving the child. We discharged the child home that day as we realized he would benefit more from being home with his father than being in the hospital.
Many times we struggle so much with the trials of life, all we need most times is simply the Father’s touch. May we receive the touch of the Tather in all aspects of our life.
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