A Note From Ian's Father

Beloved praying family in Christ,

I want to share God's glory with all who were a part of His supernatural work for Ian Turnbull. I would appreciate if you would forward this to all you may have notified to share with us in prayer for Ian's life, so that we may rejoice together in what God has done. My apologies for the length, but we wanted you to understand the mighty, supernatural work God performed in a situation that is faced by missionaries in most of Africa and many other parts of the world.

I write today with inexpressibly humble appreciation to everyone who lovingly devoted themselves to prayer, and many with fasting, to our Great Physician, on behalf of our 12 year old son Ian. Many of you I may not know, and perhaps won't know until our faith becomes sight. I've heard so many stories about those who have been praying for Ian that it brings tears of gratitude for the beloved body of Christ that our God has built throughout the world, united by His mercy and the Holy Spirit that makes us one in our Savior Jesus' blessed name. At this point, in tears, I again can only say, "thank you," as we've repeatedly expressed to God in our prayers. I'm sure those of you who experienced God's hand of mercy in your prayers for Ian equally understand the unity of the Holy Spirit that has bound us together for encountering the glory of God through His ordained purpose with Ian.

Please allow me to introduce you to Ian and share his story so you can fully appreciate how God has used us, globally, in united prayer to reveal His healing purpose in Ian, to God's glory alone.

Ian has always been a bright, happy, respectful boy who is available to help in any way he can. If he sees someone trying to do something, he's the first to run up to assist and the last to leave. He likes knives, playing soccer, riding his bike and shooting his air-soft gun. He loves his younger brother and 3 older sisters, and when not doing school work is on some adventure with them or his friends. Our family of 7 has been blessed by his love throughout his life.

As missionaries in Mozambique, we live in a high malaria area, but do our best to avoid the disease through preventative use of artemisia, neem, repellants and bed-nets. None-the-less, it's difficult to avoid mosquitoes completely, and all the family has now had the parasite. We have malaria home tests, and have always caught it in the initial 24 hrs and began treatment with the most effective drugs. In every case, we have gone through the treatment course and come out fine. Ian was the one we thought wouldn't get malaria during our first term here.

On Monday Ian had the sniffles, but was his normal, active, happy self. This remained the same until Thursday. His congestion persisted and he was less active and tired, so we had him rest and monitored him. By 8 pm that evening his temperature went up (which is when the malaria home test functions best) so we tested him. It showed an immediate, strong positive for falciprium malaria, which we specifically test for as it can turn to the most deadly form of cerebral malaria. We immediately began treatment with co-artisutinate, a well-known combination therapy to treat malaria. We monitored Ian closely, bathing him to keep his temperature in check, while the malaria progressed normally, according to our previous experience. By Saturday afternoon, Ian's fever ended, and we assumed he would soon recover; a seemingly simple case of malaria. It was sometime after this that things took an unusual turn, and kept us in prayer for wisdom in treating him.

He continued to vomit and we noticed a small amount of dark flakes at one point. Eventually, during the early hours of the following day, after another dark, liquid vomit we realized it was digested blood in his vomit and prepared to take him to the nearby clinic. He began hallucinating, so we called our friend, missionary-surgeon Dr. Charles Woodrow, who suggested getting him to the first-class medical clinic in our city, Nampula, Mozambique. Charles met us there and he and the Mozambican doctor, Dr. Agustino, agreed on a course of treatment including a quinine drip. Unfortunately, Ian continued a downward spiral into a comatose state and vomited large quantities of digested blood two more times before the doctor realized this was a much more serious case than he had ever treated. He agreed it was time to consider an emergency evacuation and by 5 pm, Sunday evening, Ken was trying to arrange a jet ambulance to Johannesburg, South Africa with the help of MAF pilot, Dave LePoidevan. It was 12 hours later before the plane was to arrive at Nampula, and that being greatly facilitated by the amazing cooperation of more people than could be named. During that 12 hours, Ken and Lisa, Ian's parents, were at his side praying and doing all they could to help, anticipating that God would call him home at any moment as he tossed and screamed in apparent agony. As SMS messages were being sent out to numerous Mozambican pastors by the Turnbull's mission director, DJ Morrison, Ken was receiving responses from these pastors assuring them of their prayers. Suddenly, Ian's downward spiral reversed and Ian quieted, appearing to recover sufficient strength to continue his fight against the malaria ravaging his red blood cells and clogging his circulatory system and organs with the resulting debris sludge. The despair turned to hope as the jet ambulance was on its way. God's first response to the wave of prayers from His faithful Mozambican prayer warriors and missionaries sustained Ian's life.

After the medi-vac doctor and nurse arrived with all of their state-of-the-art equipment, feeling to us that the calvary had arrived, they immediately stabilized Ian, bringing his critically low blood pressure up from 70/30 to 80/40 by pumping him full of i.v. fluids. They also needed to put a tube down into his stomach to prevent him from choking on any vomit that may occur during the flight. Once stabilized, Ian and his Dad were taken to the awaiting doctor and nurses of the pediatric ICU in Johannesburg, where they arrived 3 hours later.

Once there, the ICU doctor began injecting more fluids into the i.v. lines to raise Ian's blood pressure. Ian also appeared yellow upon arrival due to the amount of dead blood cells clogging his liver. His kidneys were also being critically overworked. The doctor had confidence in the course that the malaria would take because he had seen similar cases, so Ken passed the positive prognosis back to his family at home, although Ian looked near death from his perspective. After two stressful days at their home, Lisa flew down as well. The doctor began to give her the run down on how things were progressing.

Many of you have gone to the doctor for results, and after a certain word, your brain does not register any more of what the doctor says. That is what happened as the doctor said "severe hypotensive brain damage" (brain damage from extended periods of below critically low blood pressures). He said that they had taken him off the sedative, so now we will have to wait and see. Ian was a bright yellow at this point and very swollen. He had tubes coming from every part of his body.

The next morning, Wednesday, he still was not awake. When the doctor made his rounds, we asked again about the possibilities of brain damage. He explained that with a child you have only one hour (the platinum hour) where the blood pressure can be below the critical line without having brain damage. We asked him to look at Ian's records from Nampula and the medi-vac. We could see his face change gravely as he calculated Ian's mean blood pressure during that 24 hour period. At least half of that time, it was below that critical bp limit. We realized with the doctor that multiple hours well below that critical limit left little hope of anything less than severe brain damage.

It was at this time that we sent out an urgent prayer request for Ian. The prayer request apparently was spread around the globe in this wondrous electronic age of instant communication, and unknown thousands of faithful believers responded, showering the throne of God with pleas for Ian's healing! The doctor did not return later in the day as had been his habit. He later admitted that he was depressed at what he anticipated would be Ian's certain outcome.

We returned to our room and intently looked unto Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. We sobbed before the Lord, praying, weeping, reading of His promises and assurances in the Word, and sobbed, prayed and sang more. The Lord brought us through the night, especially standing on Jesus' promise in John 14:12-14 to the point of confidence that God's will would be accomplished, no matter what the outcome, because we "believed the LORD" (Genesis 15:6), not the circumstances we were thrown into, and He would remain faithful and true, never-changing regardless how the circumstances turned out. We prayed again before heading down to the ICU that Thursday morning. As we entered the ICU, the three nurses surrounding Ian's bed were very busy and called to us to come quickly! We ran in to find his eyes open and him struggling to rip out the breathing tube. The nurses were struggling to restrain him. We immediately began sobbing for joy that he showed signs of life, our tears of joy dripping on his face as we hugged and kissed him. I'm sure he couldn't figure out what was happening. They soon removed his breathing tube and we saw he could move, breath, and hear on his own. Due to the breathing tube being down his throat for 4 days he could not speak, but he was able to answer our questions with a shake of his head! Soon the doctor arrived and he could not believe his eyes. He came in and out of the room three times, each time his face moving from an initial look of concern to an ear-to-ear smile before staying, shifting into "doctor mode" and explaining what we could now expect. Ian was very tired, only staying awake for 5 min intervals, and then he would sleep for a few hours. But he was back from the dead from our perspective!

Ian continued to show signs of improvement as the prayers continued. As news of his miraculous recovery was spreading, we began hearing testimonies of the thousands who were praying and the effect of God's work impacting many people's lives. The next day when the doctor came by, we asked him how does he explain Ian's recovery after the clearly recorded critically low blood pressures for so many hours, seemingly without brain damage (now physiologically confirmed). He said he didn't know. We said it was due to God's response to prayer. He said, "Maybe!"

The following day we heard the doctor outside Ian's room quizzing one of the nurses, who had recently passed school exams, about the effects of prolonged hypotension. He had the nurse calculate Ian's critical mean blood pressure; he asked him how long he could be expected to remain below that limit before sustaining serious brain damage or death; he then had the nurse calculate Ian's mean blood pressure throughout his records from before arriving in the ICU. After asking the nurse what he could expect for the patient, he affirmed to the nurse that the patient shouldn't be there in bed recovering.

However, our God is above the natural, and clearly did a supernatural work. Everyday there were new improvements. It was like Ian was physically born again. He was needing to learn how to use his muscles and coordination. We were excited about every new thing he could do. His siblings are now on there way here so we can be together after we saw him respond so well while listening and trying to talk to them on the phone, realizing his recovery would be greatly facilitated by our family being united around him again. We were continually praising the Lord for this miracle that we were seeing advance before us with each passing moment. He has had many tests, and they are all showing that he did not sustain any brain damage. Monday he will go to see a neuropsychologist to check his deeper cognitive brain function.

As for Ian, the last thing he remembers is Ken carrying him out of our house to the car to go to the clinic in Nampula. The first that he remembers is the Saturday after the Thursday he woke up; one week of lost memory where God revealed Himself to so many of us through His work in Ian. He is still a bit weak and thin, but he is getting stronger everyday. We are thankful that he does not remember the pain that his body was going through.

We recount this story so that you can share with us in exalting and praising our God, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Healer, for calling us all together in unity around the miraculous work He desired us to be a part of so that His glory might be seen, proclaimed and purposed to encourage us together in faith.

"For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever." (Psalm 86:10-12)

To the Glory of God alone,

Ken & Lisa Turnbull, on behalf of Damarise, Hannah, Sarah, Ian and Andrew as well

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On The Road To Recovery

Another update came in on Ian. Thanks for your prayers for him. It sounds like he is doing so much better!

Great news today! Ian was able not only to stand, but walked outside the ICU and sat in the sun for a while. He had his first neurological consult and the only deficit mentioned was a tremor. He will have more evaluations later. It will take a few days to screen the blood that is being donated so the transfusion is on hold for the present. All the lines and catheters are out with the possible exception of the arterial line which I failed to ask about, though it would seem that would be removed by now. Ian ate lunch and Ken and Lisa are waiting to see if the food will stay down this time. If it does, then he will no longer need any special supportive care. It is a huge answer to prayer hearing that!! It is an amazing relief to hear that he's finally on the mend! God has surely worked a miracle in his life!!! We are tremendoulsy thankful both for the answers to prayers and for your many prayers!!! Thank you!!!

Update on Ian

This note came in from Ian sister. For those of you who have been praying but have never met the Turnbull family, this is a family picture of them. (Ian is their oldest son.)

"Ian got to sit in a chair this morning, but he was way to weak and just sort of slumped down :( He's getting a blood transfusion Monday. And he is answering more questions and following commands. It is a slow healing process, but God is an amazing God and he has already worked SO many many miracles. :) Thank you all for praying for Ian. We are praying still for complete brain function and and healing physically. God is good and all powerful and we are putting all of our trust in Him and Him alone. He is AMAZING!!! Thank you to everyone for your prayers for Ian and thank you God for the amazing way You have answered them. God is good... God is good!"

Another Update on Ian

This update on Ian just came in:

"Dear friends and family,
This morning dad messaged me and told me that Ian moved his leg and nodded his head in response to some questions, and opened his eyes. He can't squeeze mom and dad's hand yet though. The doctor will wait till later to do a neurological exam. God has greatly responded to everyone's prayers in bringing Ian this far. This is clearly a miracle!!! Praise the Lord!!! His mercies are truly new this morning! Please continue praying!!!

In Christ,
Damarise"

Continue to Pray for Ian

Here is the latest update on Ian: "Still no sign of brain response after 24 hours (more now) without sedatives. Ian had the CT scan and it showed the brain is structurally normal. Unfortunately, through this test they could not see if there was damage from the extended period of below critical blood pressure from the malaria gunk build up. We continue to wait and pray! We know that God is the all powerful God and that nothing is too difficult for Him. Thank you all tremendously for your prayers and encouragement!!!"

Update on Ian

Thanks so much for your prayers for Ian. Since I first wrote Ian has air lifted to South Africa to get better medical care. This is an update from Ian's aunt on how he is doing. His family will not have Internet access. If there is some thing major that happens they will try to let every one know. So please continue to pray for Ian as he recovers. THANKS!

Ian is still stable. Ken said that to look at him you would never think things were going well, his whole body and his eyes are yellow, and he has a bunch of tubes in him and they have him heavily sedated and still on a respirator. He said that there are about 8 huge syringe-like things hanging from the walls that are feeding different things into his body. On top of that, he said they come in regularly and do manual pushes of different things into his IV. There is a big drafting-type table in the room with a huge chart on it that they keep recording things on and studying constantly to determine what to do next. He said that there is a clear system to what they are doing and they all are very effecient and expert at it. They have given Ken nothing but hope. He said they are very matter of fact about telling him that this is the normal process and everything is proceeding just as they want it to and expect it to. They tell him that Ian's body is being cleaned up and even tho the values still look bad, they are supposed to look exactly as they do, and they will change and improve. The physician's name is Dr. Barten (not sure of the spelling and don't know the first name). He is an expert in pediatric brain damage. He is on the pediatric ICU full-time (he doesn't leave to go to other units) and he tells Ken that Ian will open his eyes in a day or two, be talking a day or two after that, and will walk out of the hospital in a week or two. I guess he sees or anticipates Ken's skepticism, so he keeps telling him stories about this kid and that kid who were worse than Ian and they recovered fully. Ken said he is very confident and matter of fact about it. he also said that this dr is very passionate about his work and he is all over Ian. He feels that Ian is in amazingly capable hands. The nurses are very good too, and they are also very kind to Ken when they have to keep asking him to move out of their way :) They gave him a spot at the corner of the bed where he can have his hand on Ian's foot and be out their way, but he still gravitates up towards Ian's head eventually. The process is still unfolding though, so the concern is that something could go wrong, change for the worst, or go off course for some reason, but so far that it is not happening and things are progressing in the right direction. He asked this doc how many cases of cerebral malaria he sees and he said 2 or 3 a year. This concerned Ken at first but Dr Barten mentioned that he is consulting with a malaria specialist about Ian's treatment. The doctor on the medi-vac team arranged for Ian to be brought to this hospital specifically so that this particular dr would be managing his treatment. He said there is no one better for Ian's situation. right now, all the fluids and Ian's immune system are focused on cleaning up all the dead cells and debris in Ian's body. I can say from what i know that his brain won't (and shouldn't) come up until his body is stable. The dr said that the same clean up that is actively happening in his body is also happening in his brain. Ken was a little disturbed that Ian's eyes were partially open but his eyes were not moving. I'm sure that looks scary. I told him that the brain shuts down in stages and comes up in stages, and that right now all the oxygen in his brain is going to the lower level functions and not the higher level functions. His brain will focus on the lower brain vital functions first (breathing, kidneys, etc.), and then the vital sensory-motor connections next (reacting reflexively to sensory stimuli like light and pain), but, his brain will not waste one ounce of energy on higher level things like comprehension (on the input end) or with intention (on the output end). His eyes are not moving because his brain does not care right now about understanding the visual world or about looking around to see what's going on in the world. When the brain gets the all clear, is told that the body is stable and that there is now energy to spare, then some of those oxygen resources will start getting channeled out to the higher level brain functions again, and Ian will wake up. It will be slow and stiff at first, the sensory-motor connections to the higher levels may take some time to get up and running, but his brain will adapt and grow new connections where it needs to when the time is right. It just won't deal with that until the brain is ready to engage with the world again. So it is not a bad sign that he is still in a coma. Like the dr told him, his body is doing exactly what it should be doing right now, brain included.

911 Please Pray For Ian

The following is a note from our good friend Hannah whose brother is VERY sick with Malaria. Please uphold him in prayer.


Ian is in the clinic right now. (the clinic is better than the hospital). WOAH! What?! I know that was my first response. I just found out. PLEASE PRAY!!! I guess the malaria meds weren't working and we was too weak to stand up (he has been puking up the malaria meds since yesterday and we've been trying to get them to stay down.) He is now in the clinic... which is more like a hospital with IVs in him giving him salts and sugars and quinine (sp?) a malaria treatment. The Drs. said that about half his blood is gone. The effects of the malaria, which means that it has gotten really far. Please pray!!! We know the Great Physician can heal anything! Thank you!

UPDATE:

Damarise, Sarah, Andrew and I just got back from visiting Ian. The Drs. have given him something to dull the pain and Ian is in and out of it all the time. It's really sad to see him so weak and sick :( The Drs. also said that Ian's blood count which is supposed to be at 400 at the highest or 150 at the lowest was at 65! WOAH!!! I'm not sure what that means but it sounds really bad! They have him hooked up to all kinds of stuff. Dad said that Ian would be at the clinic most of today (Sunday) Please keep praying for him!! And for Mom and Dad too... they haven't been getting much sleep since all this began Thursday so I'm sure they are completely warn out. THANK YOU!