A while back, I briefly touched upon Loiyan Eshe Parnyombe; I mentioned her in two of my stories, "A Bad Day In The Emergency Room--Parts Two and Three". This is her story, as written by Louisiana Sandusky, who cared for the young African beauty when she was seriously injured in an elevator accident earlier this year.
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Hi. This is Louisiana Sandusky.
I have written about quite a few of my hospital experiences, but I am going to write about a patient I took care of earlier this year.
As you can very well imagine, I work at a city hospital here in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, where I live. I am a registered nurse; and I have worked at Nashville Memorial Hospital for about 8 years now.
During my tenure at NMH, I have cared for many patients, young and old, rich, middle-class, or poor; white, black, and all colors in between. Many I have lost contact with, but several remain close to my heart; their stories have touched me in such a way that I will probably always remember them for the rest of my life.
One of these patients happens to be a young lady in her 30's. An exotic beauty born in Africa. (No, it is NOT M'buti Moore-Sormiento. Besides, M'buti is at least 5 to 6 years younger than the lady I am writing about!)
I first met Loiyan Parnyombe earlier this year, during the summer. I was helping out in the emergency room that day, and, as I remember correctly, it was an absolute MADHOUSE. The waiting area for the ER was full of patients, and among the patients seen that day was my daughter, Ronee', who had suffered one of her asthma attacks. It turned out that Ronee' was to be okay; she is not why I am writing this story; and besides, the story is NOT about her. The story I am telling here is about Loiyan Parnyombe.
Loiyan, as I remember correctly, was just as beautiful and as exotic as M'buti, if not, even more so. She was tall and thin (but she was not as tall as M'buti), and she had beautiful dark skin the color of deep, dark chocolate. Her eyes were wide and dark-brown, and her nose was straight and upturned at the end. Her mouth was quick to smile; and she had an infectious laugh (although, at first, she didn't laugh; she was in a lot of pain, and as a result of her injuries, she was paralyzed and was in pain in the areas where she DID have feeling). Her hair was cut close to her perfectly shaped head, and it was done in a very short Afro (similar to M'buti's). Her body was lean and it had very little in the way of fat on it. She wore ear plugs in her upper and lower earlobes; and she talked with a crisp, clear accented voice. She was of the Maasai tribe; and she was proud of her Maasai heritage. She carried the fact that she was a Maasai like a banner.
Loiyan was just recently arrived to the United States of America from Kenya, Africa, and she had just gotten settled in and had gotten a job at a bank as a bank teller. Well, one afternoon, during her break, she had gone into the elevator for a trip to the employee break area when the elevator she was in suddenly fell. As a result of the accident, Loiyan had been severely injured. She suffered devastating injuries to her spinal cord, had a broken arm, and a broken hip, as well as a concussion. She was later found to be paralyzed from the middle of her back on down.
Her life had been drastically changed in an instant. From a newly arrived, productive citizen of the United States, Loiyan had turned into a patient needing urgent medical care..and she would be paralyzed for the rest of her life. She was paralyzed from the middle of her back on down to her toes; and there was absolutely no hope of her ever regaining the use of her lower body. She would now have to live out the rest of her life in an electric wheelchair, and she would need someone to care for her needs.
She spent a total of three months in the Neurological Critical Care Unit recovering from her devastating injuries. She lay in a Stryker Frame, hooked up to tubes and monitoring equipment, Crutchfield tongs placed into the sides of her head (this was necessary to hold her spine and neck aligned and to prevent further injury), and as you can imagine, she was understandably scared and unsure of what her future would hold. But I tried my best to reassure her, and she eventually learned to trust in me.
She and I spent many an hour talking. She told me of her girlhood in Eldoret, Kenya, where she was born; and she told me of her Maasai ways. She was the youngest of fifteen children, and the girls were in charge of caring for the brothers, the housework (inside and outside), the house itself, getting food or water, and tending to the goats and cattle (milking them). The girls also cooked the food. (The boys mainly tended to the cattle and learned to become il moran..Maasai warriors.)
She had quite a fascinating history; and I delighted in listening to her telling her stories of Africa and her childhood. She said she saw many animals there..antelopes of all kinds, elephants, lions, leopards, cheetahs, birds by the dozens, rhinoceroses, hippotamuses, and snakes and lizards. She also saw sickness run rampant in her village; sicknesses like AIDS, smallpox, measles, polio, and the sleeping sickness often felled many people, killing vulnerable babies, children, or elderly people with a terrible swiftness. Several of her sisters and brothers had died as a result of measles or polio; when she talked about their deaths she cried like a baby, and I had to hold her in my arms and try to comfort her.
As she grew older, she began to express a desire to go to school, which was what she did; but she went close to where she made her home; she was very close to her large family. At the age of 20 she went to college for four years, majoring in English Studies and Business Management. She proved to be a very diligent student.
Earlier this year, she made the decision to move to America to become a bank teller; for some reason, this was what she wanted to do in life. So she did; only to be severely injured a few short months later.
She is now still in a rehabilitation hospital, where she is continuing to receive therapy and emotional counseling, to help her deal with her devastating disabilities; and she is finally starting to accept her condition. But I know she still misses Africa; I see the tears in her dark luminous eyes, and I can tell she worries about the surviving members of her family.
I will write more about Loiyan later on, but I will say this..I have found such a kindhearted person whom I am glad to call a friend, and I feel blessed that I was there in her time of need. After all, isn't that what people are SUPPOSED to do--help one another when they need it the most?
Loiyan Eshe..Asante sana! Thank you so much for accepting me as a friend; I will be forever indebted to you, and I am glad you are a part of my life! You will never be forgotten, and I love you, sweet Loiyan!!
very good descriptive write...you have *such* an imagination to create characters you can see in your mind and grow to care about! i can't wait to read more about loiyan! GREAT JOB--10 +++!! (((HUGS))) and love, karla. :)
