She was only 34 years old, but already Daisy’s arthritis had wreaked havoc on her body. Her knees in particular were the most painful.
For 13 years she had been bound to a wheelchair, unable to walk or transfer herself to bed.
It would have been easy for Daisy to give in to depression and hopelessness – a young mother in the prime of life, yet unable to perform the most basic of tasks for herself. But Daisy refused to let her physical condition get her down; she persevered, even managing to care for her 3 young children from her wheelchair.
Daisy’s husband wanted so desperately for his wife to experience some relief, so he sought help at Hospital Socorro de lo Alto, a small mission hospital in Honduras, where they live. Fortunately, they came at the beginning of the two-week period when Dr. John Wilson and his wife Jill were leading a medical mission team that would be able to perform the surgeries that Daisy needed for her knees.
The Wilsons’ teams of volunteers came stocked with medicines and surgical sutures from MAP, which supported both the surgical teams in the hospital and the mountain ministry teams that served the more remote villages.
Due to the degree of deformities in both knees, the orthopedic surgeons determined that Daisy would not benefit from having just one total knee replacement, two total knees would be needed. In the U.S., where time and money and access to care aren’t such luxuries, patients typically have one knee replaced at a time, because of how painful just one of those operations can be.
Daisy, however, did not have any of those luxuries, and she had surgery to replace both of her knees at the same time.
“Daisy was inspirational,” Dr. Wilson says. Despite the pain she was in during recovery, “one day she stood in the hallway and sang a song a cappella with her beautiful rich voice.” An interpreter told him that the song meant “My heart is full of love, it comes from above. I praise GOD for His love…”
As she worked with the volunteer physical therapist and learned to walk again, Daisy continued to praise God for His goodness to her and encouraged the entire hospital with her singing.
“Sometimes the missionary work comes right from the patients themselves,” says Dr. Wilson.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wilsons had delayed this particular mission trip many times over the last 2 years. To finally be able to make their 18th trip to Honduras was a long-awaited gift, and one that they shared with MAP. “MAP is a blessing around the world with their incredible vision and generosity. Thank you!”
