The Journey to Akram's Surgery

We brought Akram to Wolfson Medical Center in Tel Aviv today to be admitted for his first surgery which is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Before we left Jerusalem Akram had a host of visitors and staff pray over him which was fitting after the spiritual journey Akram has undertaken the past few days along with the arduous physical journey that is well underway.

Akram will be kept in the hospital for at least 2 weeks and up to 1 month after this surgery, so yesterday, rather than spending his last day of freedom cooped up inside I took him and his mother out for a little day trip. We stopped at a vista that looked out over the village of En Kerem, a small town bordering Jerusalem. Akram’s mother enjoyed the view and the flowers, Akram preferred a more fitting teenager activity: appropriating an unattended garden hose and spraying the countryside (and his mom and I just a little).
We then entered En Kerem, where we visited a church on the site of St. John the Baptist’s birth. Akram and his mother enjoyed the church very much, taking time to reflect and pray, as well as appreciating the architecture, stained glass, renaissance paintings, marble work, and iconography found about the sanctuary. After hearing of Akram’s journey thus far the Franciscan monk caretaker offered to have Akram blessed by the deacon. Akram was excited to receive a blessing, but I was disappointed that Akram wouldn’t be able to understand a blessing done in English. To my surprise, after sharing my concern with the deacon, he switched to speaking Arabic without missing a beat and blessed Akram and prayed over him for his surgeries.

Akram had requested visiting The Garden Tomb, an alternative resurrection site for Jesus which is in a beautiful garden; so this morning after saying goodbye to everyone at the Shevet house we stopped by The Garden Tomb on the way to the hospital. Akram and his mother enjoyed wandering the garden, the calmness of which markedly contrasted the impending surgery. After asking Donna about a stone pulpit at the site, and grasping what it was, Akram requested I deliver an impromptu sermon, to which I insisted we read the Scriptures provided in the pamphlet together; he happily obliged. All around there was life springing up, flowers even sprouting out of split rocks. I found this to be not only a beautiful metaphor for the resurrection of Jesus, but for Akram as well, his incredible journey so far and the tremendous pain and difficulty he must undergo for what we believe will be new life when all is said and done.
They even bear similar wounds, Akram having a terrible gash in his side where he has had previous lung operations, which tomorrow morning will be reopened once again.

After arriving at the hospital we got Akram and his mother situated in their room, and took Akram to be X-rayed, to have blood work done and lines put in his arm. I have stayed nearby Akram for moral support throughout the last few days and I wanted to be there for him especially when he was suffering the pain of the needles. Akram showed more courage in this than I did, returning to a state of calm immediately after the painful parts were over. While I have seen many grizzly things in my time at Shevet, it was an especially humid today in Tel Aviv, and watching Akram get stuck with needles in addition to the humidity proved a bit too much for me and I had to remove myself for a couple minutes out of fear I would faint (it was from the humidity, I swear). But everything on Akram’s end was handled smoothly, when all was said and done, Akram and his mother were comfortable in their room, Akram doing some drawing, one of his many talents, his mother, encouraging him to eat more, one of hers. Donna and I prayed over Akram and his mother, exchanged hugs and kisses and promised to see them again the next morning for the surgery.

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Yesterday at the John the Baptist site Akram was perusing the various crucifixes and considered buying one, but after I told him the price in sheqels he was deterred. Because of all his previous medical treatment Akram and his family are one of the poorer ones we have had. So, after checking him in last night, I ran down to the Old City with a good Arab Christian friend where I got him a crucifix small enough to hold in his hand, made of olive wood, and covered in mother of pearl. When I arrived to visit him before his surgery this morning I surprised him with it and he was pleased to receive it. Many of the Muslims who we minister to have something called worry beads, which looks something like a catholic rosary; basically something to occupy your hands during stressful times. Akram handled this crucifix much in the same way, feeling its texture in his hand, memorizing the outline of the cross and the figure of Christ pressed upon it.

Akram underwent surgery at 11am this morning on his collapsed right lung, one of the lasting effects of his grueling bout with tuberculosis. In order to accomplish this repair the doctor made an incision between his ribs and removed necrotic tissue and scar tissue which inhibit his lung from functioning. After a four and a half hour surgery Akram emerged from the ER and was transferred to the ICU where we received good news. All reports are that the operation was a success, his lung is now free of the offending tissue and the hope is that now his lung will begin to inflate, a process which is expected to take several days. The one complication I became aware of in the ICU was that Akram’s blood pressure post surgery was unusually low, but the ICU doctor said that he had become slightly over-sedated and that it was not a serious problem. Akram has a long recovery ahead of him as this special surgery will require him to remain in the hospital up to a month, much of which he will spend with tubes inserted in his chest, as shown in the X-ray, for drainage.


Prior to the surgery Akram appeared very calm and he and his mother were encouraged by our visit. After he was taken to surgery Donna, Kirsten, and I sat with Um Akram for the duration; she was visibly anxious but remained collected the entire time. When we left, the doctors and nurses running around him in the ICU had thinned, and Um Akram was sitting by her son’s bedside holding his hand while he slept.

On my end this marks working about 30 of the last 40 hours. In addition to praying for Akram please pray that I will not need to be admitted myself.