Heart Ache

I'm sitting here in Methodist Hospital listening to the Koran being read to my patient with prayers being sung in the background on a cassette tape and an Arabic channel playing on the TV. The patient's wife is lying on the foot of the bed; his restrained hand rests on her foot. She has cried a lot today. He may not live. Her brother is here. He is the one reading the Koran. She has three children at home trying to go to school. Other than that, she is alone in the United States. Her oldest son is depressed because of his dad's condition. He is not doing his school work. She talked to his teacher today. What can she do? She has no one, she says, other than her husband, whom she loves very much. He loves her and has always treated her well. There is no one else from her country that lives in her town. My heart aches for her.