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Mission 141 Mission 140 | View All Mission Reports | Mission 142 Departure: Arrival: Date: Mission Report Brandon F, 16 year old and his family were on a road trip for 3 weeks to see towns from their home in Dayton, Ohio all the way to the Pacific Ocean. On the first day in Branson Missouri he went trout fishing. Later that day he began to feel very badly with chills and body aches and his parents took him to a local small ER and he was diagnosed with “heat exhaustion” and discharged. The next day his fever climbed to 102 and he began having R abdominal and flank pain so he was taken back to the ER. He normally was a very healthy teenager. He was found to have a serious kidney infection and even abscesses on his kidney. He was transferred to St John’s Hospital in Springfield. Within 2 days and IV antibiotics, his conditioned worsened and was felt to have the infection seeded on his heart valve. He needed to be transferred to a children’s hospital and they decided to get him to to be closer to home. When we arrived he was febrile (feverish) and the nurse told me they had found a tick on him that morning on his lower back. His mom was given the job to transport the dead bug in a container for analysis (yuk). Brandon looked very sick and despite heavy IV pain meds, he still had myalgias (muscle pain) and headache. His legs and feet were very swollen. His father and siblings followed the ambulance to the airport so they could join in the plane-side prayer over him. His mom was flying with us and she looked amazingly calm. What faith she must have! Being a mom of a 16 year old myself, I’m sure I would be strung out knowing some severe infection was overtaking my son. They lived in a Menonite village and his parents were strong believers. After prayer we loaded him into Nellie and we were off. He had been on a large plane before but never a small one like Nellie. But he was just too sick to enjoy it. Nurse JoLynne and I learned he was very computer literate (minus the social media) and home schooled and had finished high school level already. He looked to be miserable so we went silent to let him rest with headphones playing “K-Love” type music. When we landed he awoke and gave me a look of panic as his head was in severe pain. We promptly gave him some pain medication IV as my heart ached for him. Cincinnati children’s transport was gracious in donating the ground transport and thanks also to the wonderful nurses at both hospitals. We even had one of his doctors meet us on arrival in Ohio. In follow up I called his mom today and she said after 5 more days in the hospital, he was able to go home yesterday on IV antibiotics. Doctors never really figured out what bacteria exactly had attacked him but, praise God, he is pain free and fever free today! What a miraculous recovery. God definitely has plans for his future. How rare to have a teenager face his own mortality and then make a complete turn around! She said their family was so thankful for our mission. Thanks again for the team of Hal, DJ, Jolynne and Bob for helping to show God’s love to this family. Tam |
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