Chris Updates

Thursday October 19
From Chris' friend Jeff: Please keep praying. Last night Chris had a blood clot pass through his heart and he went into cardiac arrest. They were able to get his heart started again. He was then stable throughout the night and he is going into surgery this morning. They are going to put a screen into his veins that should stop any clots from getting through. His biggest risk at present is blood clots. Anyhow, I will try to keep you updated as to the outcome of the surgery. God is good and in control.


Friday October 20 – AM
From Mark, to the office staff: Good morning everyone,
I just spoke with Correna and she said that Chris was doing better today. After the scare on Wednesday night all of his vital signs are now stable. His low blood platelet count has improved, his fever has gone down, and his heart rate is better. The burns on Chris's feet and toes continue to show signs of improvement. Correna remains in good spirits and she asked that I save the Grand Rapids Press sports pages because Chris will never believe that the Tigers actually made it to the World Series. I told her that I'd go one better and actually tape all of the games so that he can watch them for himself when he wakes up.

I've reminded Correna not to hesitate to give us a call if she needs anything. We have a wonderful group of people who know and love Chris and are eager to help out in any way possible. As always, keep Chris and his family in your thoughts and prayers.


Thursday October 20 PM
From Dan, to the office staff: Good afternoon,

I visited Correna late this morning only to find that Chris was in surgery for problems with his lungs. Correna had only found out about the need for this surgery this morning. Apparently Chris had something in his lungs that the doctors had though would break up on its own, but instead it seemed to get worse, and they needed to take action. The surgery involved running a scope through his throat into his lungs to break up and suction out the material. While I was there the surgery ended and the doctors reported that it was a complete success. Over the next few hours, they plan to take Chris off sedation so that he can continue his progress out of the coma.

Correna also received more good news this morning from the doctors. They said that Chris’s kidneys, which were not fully functioning, should recover on their own with no lasting problems.

Having spoken with our health insurance rep just this morning, I was able to give Correna the additional good news that except for a relatively small deductible, Humana would be covering all of Chris’s hospitalization costs.

You never really appreciate the value of good health insurance until something like this happens. Our policy says that after the individual deductible ($1,500, of which Datacomp pays 75%), 90% of hospitalization cost are covered. In Chris’s case, where his bills could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, that remaining 10% would still have been a huge financial burden for Chris’s family. Providentially, Chris himself recommended the final piece of our health plan that capped that 10% at a total of $1,000. Chris spent hours working on the details of our current plan trying to get us the best coverage we could afford. He did a terrific job!

Correna and the family are hopeful that Chris is now back on the road to recovery, and continue to appreciate our prayers on their behalf.


Tuesday October 24
From Adeana to the office staff: Hi everyone,

Betsy and I just got back from the hospital. We had a nice visit with Correna and were able to see Chris. We both were encouraged to see how well he looks. He is still on the ventilator, but he is continually taking more breaths on his own and Correna was hoping he would be off the ventilator in the next few days. He is no longer on any antibiotics and no longer has a fever. The doctors are encouraged that his lungs, heart and kidneys appear to be functioning normally. When we were there, his feet were unwrapped and looked better than we expected. New skin is growing and they continue to heal well. He has been on sedation since the middle of last week and was taken off sedation yesterday afternoon around 3pm. He should be starting to go through the process of moving around again. Correna told Chris that if he opened his eyes for her today, she would turn on the Tigers game tonight.

Please keep Chris and his family in your prayers.