But sometimes, in the worst places—a bombed-out clinic in Aleppo, a makeshift ICU in Port-au-Prince, a COVID ward in Manaus where the oxygen ran out—a tall woman in cheap scrubs appears. She carries no bag. She carries no drugs. She just walks in, rolls up her sleeves, and says the same thing to the dying:
She leans close. Her voice is low, almost a growl.
The footage cuts. A triage tent. Men with sunken eyes lie on cots. In the center, Nurse Yahweh is kneeling. She isn’t praying. She is holding the hand of a man who is actively seizing—his jaw locked, blood from a bitten tongue running down his chin.
The nurse, Y. M. Johnson, never applied for another license. No record of her exists after 1994. No social security number. No passport. No grave. Nurse Yahweh Video
The footage was grainy, shot on a shoulder-mounted Betacam. The setting was a field hospital in Goma, Zaire, during the dying gasp of a refugee crisis. Tents sagged under a brown sky. In the foreground, a nurse moved.
The video ends abruptly. A technical glitch—static, then black. The file metadata shows it was last accessed in 1995. Marc Duval died of malaria six months after filming. His tapes were seized by a Church official who said they contained “material unsuitable for public morale.”
“That’s the third one this week. No drugs. No defibrillator. Just her voice. I asked a doctor what he thought. He said, ‘Don’t think. Just chart it.’” But sometimes, in the worst places—a bombed-out clinic
She shrugs.
“Yahweh. What do you believe in?”
When the screen flickered on, the first thing you saw was the date stamp: She just walks in, rolls up her sleeves,
She dries her hands on her thighs.
“You don’t get to leave yet. I said stay.”
“But the man who seized—he should be dead.”
“Nurse Yahweh is on shift. Rest in peace is off the menu.”
And the impossible thing happens.