The Talbott Family in Africa

 

 Greetings from Kijabe,

Corinne and I are now in Kijabe, Kenya (next to RVA).  Not sure if all of you have heard the entire story so I will give a brief summary. On Mon. the 17^th Donna entered the RVA health center with flu like symptoms along with numerous other kids. She was not getting better and was tested for malaria on Fri. the 22. She had a heavy infection of malaria and was immediately started on IV quinine. Sat. afternoon she began to go down hill and lapsed into a disease induced coma later Saturday. Another medication was administered at 11 pm on Sat. She continued to deteriorate until Sunday morning about 3 am. The disease progression stopped at this time and she has been fighting back to regain some of the major losses in hemoglobin, platelets etc.  

We had received positive reports back in Marrupa on Saturday morning and were very surprised to hear of the sudden deterioration in her status Sat. afternoon. We made a very sudden decision at 5 pm Sat. to head for Nairobi and left at 6pm. We arrived at Kijabe hospital 27 hours later extremely stressed and tired.

It was heart wrenching to see our Donna in a comatose state. We received complete reports of the situation and I will relay a few points. She is still in a deep coma. She has made some small positive steps back towards normal since her low point on Sunday morning. Her platelets and hemoglobin are up and her liver function is normal.  Today we accompanied her to Nairobi for a CT scan and the results did not indicate any serious brain issues that needed surgical attention. She did respond to pain this afternoon.

Thank you very much for all your prayers and encouraging words through this very difficult time. Please pray for wisdom as we are still faced with daily decisions on treatment strategy. We are in constant contact with Dr. Steve Letchford the supervising physician about all these decisions. We are also in need of good rest.

 Bob and Corinne

Tuesday January 25, 2011, 6:20 pm

Greetings from Kijabe,

Donna is still in a coma but made a definite step forward today. She had good movement in her arms and legs. She has been upgraded from a 7 to an 8 on the consciousness scale. ( 15 being fully alert). Corinne also claims that she opened her eyes momentarily later today around 5 pm and recognized her. We are very encouraged to see her progress. We are starting to wind down from our heightened alert levels and are now ready for a good rest.

Bob and Corinne

Wednesday, January 26, 2011, 11:00 am Kenyan time

Greetings from Kenya,

We are now sitting in a hospital room somewhat dazed after the events of the last three days. This morning at 7 am Lincoln and Corinne arrived at ICU to find Donna with her eyes open. She recognized Lincoln and Corinne and responded with nods or shakes of her head to questions. She had started to wake up around midnight after being in a coma for 78 hours.

Meanwhile I was back at the guest house and received a phone call from an unidentified caller that said “Donna is awake”. I hurried to ICU to join Donna, Lincoln and Corinne. We were all amazed to be watching her responses and see her slight smile and smirk to some of the questions. We were joined by Karen, her dorm mother and one of the nurses, Jaqui to witness this answer to prayer.

The ICU nurse Blanche who was with her at her lowest point early Sunday morning came

in and cried with her and said, “Thank you Jesus”