Luis Fernando’s Story

 Today I got the wonderful surprise of walking around the corner in our make-shift clinic and bumping into an old friend. I first knew Xiomara through her picture on the front of the LAMB Institute’s first informational pamphlet. She was little more to me than a name I said aloud when I prayed for LAMB students. I was 14. The next year, on my first trip to Honduras, we met and since then have been becoming better and better friends.

When I lived in Honduras in 2005, Xiomara came to my rescue several times in ways that reminded me that Jesus was caring for me when at a time when I felt completely alone. Xio came into Jenny’s and my empty apartment on our first night there. An innocent lack of communication had left us both homeless for a few days and when we finally found a place to live, it was completely empty. We sat down on the floor just before dark, exhausted and hungry…and cried. At that moment our cell phone rang. Xio was on her way to our apartment with Popeye’s for dinner, mattresses, a cook stove, towels and soap, and a few dishes. That moment has always stood out to me as an example of God’s perfect provision and since Xiomara represents that to me, she is obviously a precious friend.

SO, Luis Fernando is Xiomara’s three year old. Two months ago, they were carpooling home from church and ended up in a three car collision that resulted in three deaths and seven seriously injured passengers. Luis Fernando was thrown head first into the windshield and spent the next seventeen days in a coma. The doctors at the public hospital gave up hope that he would ever wake up, let alone walk or talk. He became septic after just a few days and required several surgeries to be stabilized. Mireaculously, however, after just 24 days, he was released walking and talking. Since he had been ventilated in the hospital, he went home with an artificial airway (a trach) and developed croup shortly after arriving home.  When he lost the ability to pass any air at all, Xio rushed him to the hospital and has had to nebulize him daily since. He still has his trach, but doctors are hopeful that it could come out in the next few months.

The miracle of the story is, today Xiomara brought Luis Fernando to the clinic so that Dr. Ken (a peds neurologist) could look at his scans and asses his current condition. After an hour of observation, questioning, and other doctor stuff, Dr. Ken could find absolutely nothing wrong with Luis Fernando that would indicate he had ever had brain damage (aside from a large scar on his head). He’s an incredibly intelligent little boy with a personality that won over everyone who he had time to make friends with.

By the way, if anyone has access to some decent trach ties, I would love to get my hands on some to bring back for him when I come back to Honduras later this month. His trach is currently held in place by a dirty shoe string. The public hospital here ran out of supplies. Sigh…