A request for prayer, meditation, healing thoughts....

This is not a happy cheerful post. They tend to be the ones I prefer to write, but it is necessary that I write this one.

Today I received three separate emails from my best friend that she had received from a friend.

Her young son, C (I have not asked permission to publish his name, so C will have to do), is gravely ill in a Children's Hospital here in Canada.

Here is the story as I know it...

This past Sunday, C hurt himself on a trampoline. His mother, being diligent kept an eye on him for signs of head injury. In retrospect, although this is not the nature of his illness, it is this that likely saved his life. C awoke Sunday evening complaining of a headache so his mother took him to the local emergency room to be safe. When they got there, C was frothing at the mouth and barely able to walk. His mother likens his movements to that of a person with Parkinson's disease. They assessed him there and then sent him by ambulance to the Children's hospital in the nearest city, thinking that he had a head injury. By the time they arrived there at about 2:30am, C's skin was green with brown patches all over him his lungs were filling with fluid, he was vomiting and going into shock. A brain scan determined that this was not a brain injury, rather something different.

At about 5am the family was told that C likely would not survive another hour as his heart was failing and his lungs continuing to fill. They resuscitated him and were pumping air into him using a manual pump. There was so much fluid in his body that each time they pumped it leaked out his ears, nose and mouth. He was put on an ECMO machine that pumps the blood out of him into a mechanical heart and lung and back into him. After a few hours, miraculously, he stabilized.

This afternoon his mother indicated that his heart is pumping very slightly on its own. He wakes briefly, but is quickly sedated again as they do not want him to move too much so his body can rest. He is responding to his mother's voice and has correctly responded to the neurologist's requests to move his eyes.

The most recent update at 9:30 this evening indicates that C continues to improve. Doctors are working tirelessly to try and determine what has caused this, the current thinking is either a virus, bacteria or possibly some kind of poison ingested either by mouth or through his skin. Depending on his progress, the Doctors may start trying to turn down the ECMO machine to see if C's heart and lungs can manage on their own. It is a slow gradual process that they will base on how well C's body adapts. The Doctors stress that C is a miracle and they did not think he was going to make it through the first 24 hours. C is undoubtedly a fighter.

I believe in the power of prayer, healing thoughts, and most of all belief. This family needs strength, and medical miracles. His Mom says "I know my little miracle is still with me because of his beautiful strong spirit and the Grace of God"

So please pray, hope and believe that C will pull through this.

To C's mom, if you read this, please know that I am thinking of you, hoping, praying and believing.

Thank you