THE QUEZON QUIBBLER: Heart Attack Week

Dear Family,

Thank you for your wonderful birthday call! I should have known you wouldn't all forget me on the same birthday! I woke up very early Monday morning and watched and listened to the recording and felt so loved. I thought of these words from a poem my dad modified:

You may have tangible wealth untold

And corporate income solid as gold

But richer than I you'll never be

My children obey God and honor me.

Thank you for your expressions of love, but especially for the way you live your lives.

We were surprised when one Filipino elder wrote in his weekly letter that "I need an operation but not until after our baptisms and then after the operation I will baptize more people than ever to make up for lost time." We texted, "What operation? What's wrong?" What?? Evidently he thinks he has a inguinal hernia. I'm learning so much about the human body!

A Filipina sister reported, "My heart is shrinking!" and our nurse wanted to send her to a cardiologist. Upon further questioning at her district council, I found that every time her investigators don't show up for church, that's when her heart "shrinks." Or when the people she's teaching don't keep their commitments. I explained to her about stress and how to control it by relaxation and she got a priesthood blessing and seems fine now.

So when an American elder said he had chest pains along with his viral gastritis, we sent him to the closest ER (a small hospital in Malolos) just to be sure, but joked with the senior couples at dinner Friday night that he was just experiencing stress. When we got home the nurse called to say the hospital reported he had myocarditisand a possible heart attack and needed to be admitted to ICU! We rushed ("RUSH" is very relative in Manila traffic) but got there in about 90 minutes which is great for Friday night. He had extremely high troponin levels and the nurse (who needs to work on his bedside manner) told him, "You're the first person I've seen with that high of troponin who isn't dead!" We should have checked him out and taken him to St Lukes immediately, but we knew it would be 3-4 hours on Friday night and they promised at echo cardiogram first thing in the morning, so we checked him into their ICU.

Hospitals in the Philippines are like Hotel California: you can check in any time you like--but you can never leave! The next morning they kept delaying the echocardiogram and his parents got more and more worried (Neurologist/Nurse) and finally, after another incident of chest pain, I told the ICU I wanted him transported in an ambulance to St Lukes. They seemed relieved and promised to expedite it. That was 11am. There were delays with paperwork, getting bills from doctors ready, coordinating between the two ER's getting the insurance to cover the costs, so by 4pm when the ER doctor sadly admitted they couldn't use their ambulance because there were only two doctors in the entire hospital and there has to be doctor in the ambulance and he couldn't leave, I was SO FRUSTRATED! I called Stewart and the parents and they both said, "Just put him in the van and have Dennis drive him," but the hospital wouldn't let him go unless he was released to another doctor.

I felt like breaking down at that point, but was blessed to have the idea to ask for a private ambulance. Fortunately a competent nurse agreed and contacted a private ambulance company. They were 3 hours away, but said they would use their siren to get there ASAP, probably 1-2 hours. It took me the full two hours to call insurance companies and work on the billing. Finally, Stewart advised me to I just paid for it myself (he'd wisely given me 40,000 pesos cash that morning) since the hospital wouldn't release him unless his bill was paid in full. Then we were in the ambulance: the ambulance doctor, two nurses, the patient and his companion in the back and me in front with a crazy driver. It was amazing!! I felt like I was in a movie scene: siren blasting, going down roads the wrong way (actually not that unusual here), speeding the fastest I've ever gone in the Philippines. It was like the parting of the Red Sea! Except when it wasn't, because sometimes cars couldn't move and buses wouldn't move, and then the driver would get on a loudspeaker and they would try their best. We sped along so fast I was praying we didn't kill any pedestrians. We scraped a motorcycle, but cut one hour from the 2 hour 20 minute drive. They quickly turned him over to the cardiologist and within ten minutes they were doing the echocardiogram.

All the tests are normal so far and he hasn't had anymore chest pain, no damage to the heart, and we hoped he would make a full recovery and return to the field. Stewart did everything he could to encourage him in his healing. But the moment his parents arrived from Utah last night, they insisted he go home with them as soon as possible to be checked by American doctors and receive American treatment. We are very sorry to lose him, but thankful that he is doing well and relieved he is at ST Lukes.

Meanwhile, Dad is leading the mission as usual, inspiring the missionaries to work hard and be obedient. Lately he's made a lot of visits to companionships to teach them principles. He visited one companionship where the trainee had complained in her letter about the disobedience of her trainer. It turns out the trainer gets her companion up at 5am on Sunday morning to go around and wake up the people they've been teaching to take them to 8am church! We could do with a few more "disobedient" missionaries like that. We are blessed with so many great missionaries--I'm sad to lose even one--but I need to remember to count my blessings and be grateful for the ones we still have here.

Love,

Mom

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