Albert Einstein Hospital

 Answering phone calls from missionaries 24/7 is what we do.  It's rare that we have a missionary hospitalized for a long time, thank goodness.  Fortunately we have a very modern, state of the art private hospital nearby, the Albert Einstein Medical Center.  Many of their doctors were trained in the US.

Albert Einstein Medical Center

Albert Einstein Medical Center

Unfortunately, we had a missionary get hit by a bus in April and he wasn't stabilized until May when he could be returned home. The church flew his parents here immediately and we spent the month taking them to and from the hospital, fixing meals, getting needed supplies, attending a Zone Conference from the missionaries'  mission, consulting with doctors,  and sitting with the Elder.

Taking a critically ill missionary home isn't an easy process and it took many days to work out all of the details.  First of all, the tiny lear jet doesn't hold as much gas as the big commercial airliners, so it had to make more stops - Belem Brazil, Puerto Rico, Atlanta and then Salt Lake.  (Venezuela refused to let them fly over.) The parents flew home a day before the missionary and then Spence was chosen to be the one to escort the missionary home along with 2 nurses and the 2 pilots.  It was a very cramped flight.

After another month in therapy at the University Hospital, Elder Schenk finally was released to go home on April 24th.  He had a plate put in his head to cover the place where the bone was removed.  Then when they went to fix his fractured face and nose they discovered that it had all healed back in place and no surgery was needed!  Elder Schenk still has a lot of therapy ahead of him, his vision  is still very limited. But we've seen many, many miracles happen.  During the month he was at the U Med Center, his parents used Mom's apartment as their home base.  It worked out very well for them as they come from Hyde Park, near Logan, and that long drive would have been prohibitive.  (Thanks Mom & Dad!!)  Anyway, if you haven't been following the blog already, it's http://elderbrittenschenk.blogspot.com.  They won't be posting daily like they have in the past, but I'm sure they'll keep it up because they've got such a huge following.