Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

We had planned a trip to Curacautín to teach the next-to-last temple class and to help the new sister missionaries with their furniture.  Elder Babcock wanted to identify street names in the new housing districts and was very eager to prepare a complete map for the missionaries in Curacautín. He thought about working late into the night on Tuesday to finish the map prior to the district meeting on Wednesday, so the new missionaries could begin with the resources they needed for planning. Our plan did not include going to the hospital.

Elder Babcock woke up in the night with an earache and got up early on Tuesday. He had wanted to leave for Curacautín at 8:00 A.M. to have time before the meeting with the Elders to move the furniture. He took some pain pills and drove halfway to Curacautín, then stopped the car and asked me to drive. After our investigation of streets in three housing areas, Elder Babcock  felt nauseated and wanted to back to the Mormon chapel.

The Mormon Chapel in Curacautin

There we found the Elders. By that time Elder Babcock had a lot of pain and fever and nausea. He stayed in the chapel in a warm classroom, and the Elders and I moved the furniture. Elder Babcock was obviously very sick, and Elders Medina and Soltelo gave him a blessing.

Élder Medina y Élder Soltelo

Elder Babcock didn’t want to leave Curacautín, because we were supposed to teach the Temple Preparation Class at 5:30 P.M. He realized that would be impossible and was almost unable to speak, but managed to ask Elder Medina to cancel the class for us.

The Elders suggested that I take him to the hospital. Elder Babcock was not communicating well, but I could tell that he did not want to go to a doctor.

I understood that he needed medication, and we returned to our house in Victoria. I thought that with Tylenol and sleep everything would be okay.

While I was searching the Internet for information about adults with fever and ear pain, I thought that Elder Babcock was sleeping. When I tried to talk to him he spoke of back pain. He stayed in bed, but after a little while, he got up. In his confusion went to the garage instead of the bathroom. He couldn’t talk to me and was very disoriented. I called the zone leaders to help me take Elder Babcock to the hospital. I called the mission office and President and Sister Martinez to ask them what I should do, then called the zone leaders to help me take Elder Babcock to the hospital

Élder Badger y Élder Gallarreta

The Hospital near our home in Victoria

Elder Babcock couldn’t talk, but he could walk and follow instructions to make it easier for us to get him in the car. Elder Badger told me he could see fluid and pus in Elder Babcock’s left ear. At the hospital Elder Badger spoke with the doctors as I spoke to people in admissions. The doctors examined him and took blood and did other tests, thinking that Elder Babcock had meningitis.

He was given sedatives to calm him down so they could examine him. Elder Babcock had been trying to get out of bed, but he was still confused and disoriented and unable to explain any pain.

The doctors told us we needed to go to the hospital in Temuco and spoke of an ambulance. But the hospital had no ambulance available. Following the instructions of the mission president, Elder Badger drove us an hour south to Temuco. I sent a message to my children about the situation, asking for their prayers. It was a dark and difficult night, a long journey, with many prayers. We arrived at Clinica Alemana, a good hospital for Elder Babcock, the best in Chile outside of Santiago.

Clínica Alemana in Temuco

The Elders helped me with the challenge of admission. Another great blessing was the support of the mission in the payment guarantee. The doctors said that meningitis is highly contagious, and that the two Elders and I should be vaccinated. We were all tense and concerned about the situation. Medical terminology was very difficult to understand. Elders Badger and Gallarreta stayed with me in the clinic overnight in the waiting room outside the ICU to talk to doctors and translate for me. I could understand enough Spanish to know that the news was not good.

It was a difficult night.  After a while we tried to sleep on the couches outside the ICU. It was almost impossible.  Noisy alarms sounded when the door of the ICU was not closed completely and people were constantly coming and going.

Dr. Rivas, the neurologist, came out and explained that the lumbar puncture confirmed infection.  Elder Babcock had pneumococcal meningitis which was a very serious but not very common. The bacteria had entered the brain through Elder Babcock’s ear. He would need a very specific intravenous antibiotic and would have to stay at the clinic a few days. I did not know then that it would be many days.

I understood that Elder Babcock was very ill but stable, meaning that he wouldn’t die during the night.  He had been given sleep medications. I was hoping he would soon wake up, but he had been given medication to make him sleep. Since the ICU allowed visitors from only nine in the morning to nine at night, I thought to travel between Temuco and Victoria every night while he was in the clinic. I didn’t know that the doctor expected that he might die.

I continued communicating with my family, using the Internet at the clinic, and we began to receive the great blessing of family prayers and also the prayers of members of our ward and stake.