Nurses to the Rescue...

This past Friday, we left Zimba and encountered a surprising, life-changing adventure on our way to Macha, a rural town we will be in for 3 weeks. We had not yet reached Choma and were in the middle of the bush (the rural land a fair distance away from cities) when we came upon what appeared to be a large cloud of dust. Our first reaction was to shut all the windows on our little bus to prevent the dirt from getting inside. After we cleared the dust, our eyes all were drawn to a large object far off the side of the road with two people in front waving their arms at us—an enormous charter-sized bus had crashed into a small field 50 feet off the side of the road.

As our bus slowed down to park on the side of the road, one of our nursing professors said aloud, “everyone grab gloves!” and we all did as she suggested. We ran out from our bus with what we had from our nursing clinical supplies: gloves, gauze, tape, and even our own bottles of water. Instantly we could see that the whole front of the bus was gone. The windshield was smashed in and the gaping hole that was left behind now revealed injured, bleeding people who were still in their seats toward the front of the bus.

Working as a true team, we began to help people climb out of the open front end of the bus past the debris and broken glass. People were so shocked—the accident had clearly just happened and some people were even screaming. One woman had apparently jumped out of the bus with her young child in her arms in an attempt to escape the crash, but she had broken her leg from the impact of landing on the ground. She and her daughter were covered in dust and had some abrasions.

 Other people and cars began to stop along the side of the road and we were soon working amongst a large crowd of people. Some of them were helping the victims of the crash and the rest all looked in bewilderment at the crash site as they filmed and took pictures on their phones.

Our water bottles were put to good use for the victims of the crash. We used the water to clean off gashes and abrasions of all sizes of adults and children alike. Our team instinctively broke out into smaller groups in order to attend to the more critical patients. Gauze and tape were applied quickly to the gashes and cuts on various parts of bodies—mostly on the heads and legs of people. No wound was bleeding too excessively, but there certainly were some deep cuts.

The most memorable victim was a woman sitting at the seat closest to the gaping hole of the bus who had a clearly visible face covered in blood. A doctor who had been at the back of the bus quickly helped to assess this woman and called for some chitenges (the pieces of material that Zambian women wear for skirts) and sticks to fasten to the woman’s badly broken leg. A large metal pipe which had broken off the bus was tied to her leg to keep it straight and a group of men carefully lifted this woman off the bus over the sharp edges of the windshield. Our team kept this woman alert and talking to us to be sure she remained conscious. We applied pressure and bandages over her bleeding cuts, including a deep cut on her forehead and a bloody cut which was over halfway through her left thumb.

 Many victims were experiencing leg pain and difficulty moving as many of them appeared to have broken legs from the impact of the crash. We comforted these people and instructed them to remain still until we could get them into the back of the pick-up truck which was heading to Choma General Hospital about 10 miles away. Only the more critically injured people were placed into the truck that was going to the hospital. We carried people with leg injuries and supported those with upper body injuries and loaded many into the back of this truck. Victims were mostly concerned with keeping all their bags from the bus with them, but we arranged for these to be brought to the hospital at a later time.

Including small children, the bus had been transporting over 70 passengers. The front left tire of the bus had blown out and sent the bus off the road, through several large trees, and eventually went airborne and crashed down into the dirt. No one on that bus died in the crash, which is certainly an act of God. Our group of nursing students had arrived first on the scene only minutes after the accident had taken place.

We did not have time until later that day to discuss the event, but we realized how perfect it was that our group was the first to respond to this accident. We were even prepared with the supplies for first aid and gloves to protect ourselves to help treat those who were injured. The timing was also incredible-------Our group was originally planning on having several classes during this same time, but we had changed our minds and had class arranged for another time instead. Falling somewhat behind schedule that morning, we had left Zimba later than when our leaders had planned. If we had not changed our schedule or fallen behind that morning, we most likely would not have known about the accident at all. God had had a different schedule of time in mind for us and the people on that bus that day.

Even for those who managed to leave the accident with only small scratches, we served as a sense of comfort and reassurance of their well-being and safety. Some of the victims said remarks such as “God is present here” and “Thank you, God” in addition to thanking our group. One woman who survived the crash with only a bump on her head was overheard speaking to someone on her cell phone at the scene. Into the phone she said, “Luckily, a bus full of nurses just happened to drive by shortly after the crash.” She smiled with sincerity as she said this and looked at me….. all I could do was smile back with tears forming in my eyes. WOW.

God is so mighty and wonderful!!! He has a plan for all of us and we never know where our paths will lead us!! We know God meant for us to be at the scene of that crash so we could use our nursing talents to serve people in need. It was all done to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!

Later when we left the scene, in a choked-up voice our professor prayed—“Lord, earlier today before we left we asked You to send angels to protect us, but instead we became angels.”

-Samantha Lehman

Zambia Abroad Nursing Student