Muuch (Mayan for frog)
We had a medical drama this last week and the wonderful news is that it has turned out well. It’s a good story that shows how dependent we can be on good friends and how fantastic it is when people all come together to make it work.
A well known cave diver got sick over in Tulum almost 2 weeks ago. He kept thinking he would get better and he didn’t. After about a week they found him delirious and hallucinating. A friend where he was staying and the wife of one of his dive friends realized he was going downhill and got a doctor to see him. She’s a midwife so she has medical knowledge and she is fluent in 3 languages two of which are English and Spanish, she is German. The local doctor told her he was going to die and there was nothing they could do but make him comfortable! His extremities were swelling and losing color and his lips were ringed in blue.
She wouldn’t accept that and negotiated an ambulance down from their outrageous first request and got him to Valladolid. There the doctor was great but overworked and the clinic was jammed and she said it was a little “bangladesh like”. She felt the doctor was excellent though but he had so many emergencies going on and so little equipment. He gave him oxygen and told her to get him to Mérida, it was the only place that could save him. Another negotiation, another ambulance and she got him to the main public hospital here in Mérida, O’Horan.
There, the trauma care is excellent and they worked on his fluctuating heart rhythms, put him on a ventilator to get his dangerously low oxygen levels up and started aggressively treating the lung infection. Aneke stayed with him sleeping in a tiny ball at his feet in the crowded ER.
Our friends Kay and Gary from Locogringo over in Akumal are also good friends of his and as soon as they got the call they got busy. Kay started organizing support and making the phone calls and coordinating information for his many friends and family. Gary threw 2 t-shirts in a bag and hit the road for Mérida. Kay also called us and we called Gary at the hospital and he moved here to our couch. Aneke has 3 kids, a husband and a business, Xibalba Dive Center, and went home for a few days.
The diver’s brother in law is a doctor and Gary was able to email him all of the drugs and protocols they were using and he felt they were doing exactly what would be done in the US. The sister and brother in law got on a plane, Gary picked them up, gave them a short version of where they were with his condition and got them in a hotel and to the hospital. Aneke returned and Gary moved to our hammock and gave her the couch.
In the midst of all of this we’ve had 2 dinner parties, several other events and a lot of late night schmoozing when Gary and Aneke returned from the hospital. I don’t want to say it has been fun but we have had some laughs and we’ve all done our best to give our dive friend the best chance we could to recover. In particular, it is clear he would have died without Aneke and her persistance.
It was touch and go for about a week. He was in an induced coma, on a ventilator, in the ICU and getting very close to needing a tracheotomy to continue. The BIL/Doctor was satisfied with all of the care he was getting, checked the charts, the machines, the protocols, and felt he was getting everything that could be done anywhere. Another brother arrived and again Gary and Aneke picked him up, got him a room, got him to the hospital and made sure he was comfortable. Aneke translated for the family with the doctors and at a meeting with the head of the ICU. Everyone was really pulling for him, but the prognosis was very, very guarded.
They decided to try and wean him from the ventilator, if he couldn’t breathe on his own then they would do the trach. That’s not something anyone would want but if it saved his life they would do it. He was getting an infection from the tubes and there is a limit on how long you can stay on a ventilator without a trach. The lung infection was gone but he was a smoker and his lungs were compromised and he had some other problems from a life well lived. He is 57 years old.
The first night he wasn’t responding well and they put him back down. Then they started again slower and brought him up again. He had to be conscious to take out the tube so that they could encourage him to breathe and get him to work to live. He made it! The first night he recognized Gary and Aneke, he couldn’t talk but he blinked his eyes when they asked him to. Early the next morning they removed the tube and he started breathing on his own. He is still on oxygen but his levels are good and he is talking and recognizes everyone and just wants to know what the hell happened.
It looks like he will be released from the hospital next Monday and Gary and Aneke will come and drive him back to Tulum. He has a long recovery ahead and some major life changes but he’s alive and can have a good quality of life as well. It’s really been an amazing ride with a good ending. Mostly I’ve been so impressed with the way everyone has pulled together for him and for each other. It’s a good feeling.
Wow. What an amazing and scary story. Thank God for good friends and good people. Wow.
WOW! Even though this story has a good ending so far it, brought tears to my eyes. It brought back memories of my daughter’s two cardiac arrests and how much family and friends pulled together to help support my daughter and I.
I hope that things continue to improve and your friend gets released form the hospital on schedule and has a full recovery.
Amazing story – so do they know what brought this on – diving or heart problem or?
I believe one lung infection was from the air in the cave he was working. It was not underwater, it was more of a damp or half wet cave. Perhaps fungus, mold? The other thing that was mentioned is that he had an infection known to come from unpasteurized cheese and milk products. One of the doctors said that there is an outbreak of that now somewhere north of us in Mexico and he had recently driven down. If I understood it right, they said he had both infections.
I would never eat unpasteurized milk or cheese anyway but right now, I definitely don’t think it is a good idea.
Dramatic! And what an all-inclusive force he had working against the clock for him. Sidebar: you must feel warm about your supporting roles in this story. Isn’t it funny how you include yourself in good outcomes when you help others…. your inner you pats another you on the emotional back after you’ve contributed to someone’s good. Karma, neh?
Wow!!! If I’m ever in trouble, I’d hope you / Mimi are near my corner. Your generosity is so impressive. What you can’t do – you get organized. Good on ya’
Forgot to say – Love the tiny frog on the big lily pad !! That deserves to be blown up – printed – framed!!.
You are beautiful people and you know a lot of beautiful people. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
The phrase, “There but for the grace of God/Goddess go I.”
Leaps in immediate response to this post.
A career in emergency services and now with one(possibly two sons, in related fields) help me appreciate, all the effort, professional, family, friends(and a tip of the hat, to Lady Luck!)
And because this post is Mexico related. A prayer to La Virgin de Guadalupe. And one to Ixcel, while I’m at it.
What a wonderful story. There is so much in the news everyday about humans being so cruel to each other that this just touches my heart. Everyone who helped was amazing. You and Mimi are special people. I’m glad I know you.
I agree with everybody else. You two need to give yourself a pat on the back too!
Jonna and Mimi, thank you for your supporting roles in saving the life of the diver. I do want to underscore that he got great medical care with very competent doctors….they do practice good medicine here in Mexico.
I agree Kathe. I think one of the best parts of this story is the validation about the level of care that is available here. Mimi and I did very little, we would have been willing to do much more but it wasn’t needed. In fact, there were offers of help coming in from all over the world but most of it was not needed. Another diver here in Mérida, and a blogger, Lin called immediately and has offered all kinds of help. It may be needed at some future point, I don’t know yet. Kay has organized financial resources and other things but they are waiting in the wings now to see if they will be needed. The costs were so reasonable that the US doctor could not believe it. The family had no problems paying the hospital bills. They too were amazed.
Remember that he was in the public hospital, not one of the private ones that gringos usually go to. There is an incentive here in Mexico through the retirement system that keeps many of the finest doctors working at the public hospitals for at least a few days a week. I think that is a great thing and would be beneficial in any country.
I was talking to Gabi about this and she said that years ago O’Horan, the hospital he was in, was very bad. There were few drugs, few doctors and the care was horrible. She told me that her father died there back then and she felt his care was not at all good. However, she says that there was a big push to improve it and that now she thinks it is as good as Star Medica or any of the private hospitals precisely because of this program that gets the best specialists in there. She also said that the medical school has taken a role in improving the care and the funding for medicine. She now feels it is top notch and I would agree with her. Where it is obviously a public hospital is in the crowding and the waiting rooms for non-emergency care. That is true in every public hospital in the US as well.
An interesting side note about the Yucatecan accent. I was having a hard time pronouncing the name of the hospital in Spanish. O’Horan is such an Irish word that it just came out in English whenever I said it. I practiced with Gabi until I got it. In a Yucatecan accent it sounds like o-RAM! Funny, eh?
I sure am glad they insisted on further care when they were told “Nothing more can be done” the first time!