July 14, 2005

John Leonard Website

The following letter just came in from Jim Leonard, and contains information about some online resources available to those who are praying for John and Bev.

We wish to thank you all for remembering John and Beverly Leonard and their children in your prayers. God's people united in prayer will certainly bring much glory to Him, which is really what He desires; and that is what our family desires, despite the pain of the present moment.

John's condition is still critical, though much improved over the past couple of days. Yesterday he had a simple surgery to wire his mouth shut, and to hold the jaw in place, which actually makes him look and feel much better. Soon, perhaps tomorrow, more reconstructive surgery will be done on his face. Today he was very alert, joyful, and bringing happiness to those who entered his room.

This morning an MRI confirmed that extensive damage was done to his spinal chord, which the neuro surgeon does not feel would be reversed by surgery.
Besides, John has two very serious infections which would almost certainly be life threatening if surgery were done on his back. So at this point the doctors are saying that John will be in a neck brace for up to two months until the vertebrae fuse together and will probably remain paralyzed from his neck down. We believe that God can miraculously heal John if that would bring the greatest glory to Him, so we continue to pray for that.

Immediately our greatest concern is with the MRSA staff and pseudomonas infections which are extremely resistant to antibiotics. Because of this, extra precautions have been taken to keep John in isolation.

We are also praying that John will be able to breath without the aid of the respirator so that he can speak again. We have seen significant progress in his breathing, but must still pray about this.

Plans have been made for Joshua to travel from Brazil on July 22nd. A close friend with whom he is staying in Maceió will be accompanying him on the trip all the way to Des Moines.

The Iowa Methodist Hospital is providing John with excellent care, and has shown loving concern to the entire family. They have a system by which greeting cards can be sent over the internet. It is at www.iowahealth.org.
Click on the "Patient and Visitors" link and you will find an option to "Send a Patient Greeting." In this way you can save the postage and get a greeting to John much quicker.

John and Bev's home church has created a web page where current news and updates are being posted. It is www.johnleonardinfo.blogspot.com.

Since the people running the site are much closer to the situation, I will refer visitors there from now on, and will include only significant updates here. I am including the two links on the sidebar.

Update: From this website I was able to pick up another story from a Brazilian newspaper (in Portuguese). This story goes into how popular John was in the city, and how he had no known enemies there. It also shows a picture of John as he was arriving in the hospital in Brazil.

Posted by Andrew on July 14, 2005 9:36 AM.

Comments

Posted by: Jim and Barb Green at July 18, 2005 6:25 PM