Joseph

           Just over 24 hours after my Step-Mother, Marianna, arrived to Honduras from Florida we sat down with my class to enjoy the ABS Christmas show on Friday evening, December 20^th. My good friend, “roommate” and compañero, Joseph, came dressed in his handsome Christmas clothes with a red tie to match. He passed around a copy of a Christmas poem that a student of his had found and shared with him earlier that week. He explained to me that the poem gave a special message about Christmas and he decided to share with everyone who attended the show.

Christmas Poem:

“Every day is Christmas when you have that kind of mind that stores up all the goodness and the sweetness it can find.

When you don’t need an occasion to spread a bit of cheer but just keep on giving yourself throughout the entire year.

Every day is Christmas when you’ve found that you can be more concerned with words like “you” and less with “I” and “me”.

It’s fun to do a favor and to lend a helping hand, when being understood means less than when you understand.”

By – Christopher Munguia

After a couple of hours of presentations Marianna and I decided to return home to rest for a bit. We planned to grab a beer at a nearby bar and so I texted and called Joseph to see if he wanted to join us. Over our quick phone call, we also planned to spend the following day together showing his friend Alex and Marianna around the area of Puerto Cortes. We both agreed to make final plans over a beer knowing he would arrive to my house very soon.

Joseph planned to stay near Puerto Cortes for most of the holiday vacation as he was low on cash. But once I returned from Copan and Marianna flew back to Florida, he and I planned to travel to Tela and La Ceiba for the New Year so we could do a little partying before returning to work. I never expected that these plans would be taken away from us that night when Joseph returned from the school (ABS is catty-corner to his house and two houses away from mine). As Joseph approached the gate in front of his home, two young males approached him on a bicycle. Their intention was to rob Joseph of his valuables. Things are not clear as to what exactly took place, but we know that there was a struggle between the robbers and Joseph, before he was shot 4 times with a 22 caliber pistol.

As Marianna and I waited for Joseph to arrive at my place we were having a conversation with my roommate T about our plans for the vacation. All of a sudden I heard 4 gun shots come from outside, which sounded closely in the direction of the school. I ran outside and opened my gate to see a body lying on the sidewalk and people surrounding the person who laid there. It did not register to me that this could have been anyone that I knew, let alone my closest friend in Honduras. I ran inside to get T and we held on to each other as we ran outside to see. She instantly knew it was Joseph yelling, “it’s our Joseph, Sarah!”. I remember screaming his name over and over as I ran to his side to find him unconscious and bleeding from his head. A co-worker was already there with him and he immediately said to me “él está vivo, Sarah!”.

I went into crisis mode. I was freaking out, rightfully so,  as some neighbors picked him up and practically threw him in the back of the truck – their desperate attempt to get him to the hospital as quickly as possible. I ran screaming to the school looking for my boss. T was already there and many of our co-workers tried to comfort us with hugs and sympathy. I just knew I needed to be with Joseph, nothing was going to calm me down until I was by his side. T, Marianna and I jumped into the back of one of my student’s parent’s truck and they rode us to the clinic where Joseph was.

A group of people were already awaiting us at the clinic. We sat in the waiting room for about 5 minutes. The nurses cleaned Joseph's wounds, gave him oxygen and an IV, but it was apparent they could do nothing more for him there. An ambulance was already in the parking lot ready to transport Joseph, and many of our co-workers were standing in the street looking dazed and wondering how they could be help. I knew instinctively the first thing to do was contact his family, whom I knew some of them lived in San Pedro Sula (the closest city to us). I called a co-worker who frequented Facebook often and I had him jump online to find Joseph’s family and contact them. Another co-worker heard my plea at the scene and she did the same.

They put a now less bloody Joseph in the back of the ambulance and me, T and Marianne jumped in behind the nurse and paramedic. They rode us to the nearest hospital at Coca Cola Beach in Puerto Cortes. But the hospital did not even have blood for him, so the immediate decision was to get to the larger and more equipped hospital in San Pedro Sula.

It felt like the ambulance ride took hours on end but it was probably closer to 45 minutes racing to San Pedro at top speed. Miraculously, Joseph was conscious in and out of the ride to the hospital. His left eye was swollen shut and purple, but he peered at us with a confused look on his face through his right eye. He tried hard to get comfortable in the ambulance bed, moving around a lot, fighting with the IV, gripping our hands tightly, all so to make it feel right again. We talked to him to keep him awake, once in a while readjusting his oxygen tubes that were falling away from his nostrils. I held the oxygen tank upright while Marianna held the IV bag. The paramedic dabbed at Joseph’s bullet wounds to wipe away the small amounts of blood that slowly came out. 

We instinctively knew that since he was not profusely bleeding and his breathing seemed normal that he was as stable as possible under these circumstances on the way to the hospital. This gave us hope! It was apparent he was shot 4 times: once in the head, once in the stomach, once in the shoulder (a superficial wound with an exit point) and once in the upper chest.

We finally got to the hospital and they brought him to the emergency room and closed the doors. We were greeted by Joseph’s Aunt, Uncle and Cousin. They were surprisingly calm given the circumstances, most likely in a state of shock. The nurses brought out Joseph’s clothes that he was wearing to be searched. All I found was his cheap Tigo phone. We tried to explain all that we knew about the circumstances of the situation to his family in broken Spanish so that they could try to make some sense out of this atrocity.

Week Update:

Joseph had two emergency surgeries the night that he was brought to the hospital, the first on his brain and the second on his small intestine. Both surgeries were successful and the waiting game began. Knowing how devastating something like this can be, Joseph was lucky to be alive through this trauma. We kept saying how strong Joseph is – he wants to live! He has a purpose he needs to continue to fulfill in his life! He is going o recover from this!

We waited several days for the swelling in his brain to subside. Now, the doctors are positive the Joseph will live, but we still wait to see what damage has been done to his cognitive abilities (memory, speech, motor activity) as well as his vision. The doctors placed Joseph in an induced coma so his body had time to heal – an estimated time of 7 to 8 days.

Friends and family of Joseph have worked around the clock to give their emotional support, pray, and raise donations to support Joseph’s hospital bills. Fortunately, ABS has paid for all of his emergency service bills and each day at the private hospital has also been covered. But funds are not unlimited.

His family from the States would like to get him back to Texas soon for rehabilitation services, however, they have no medical insurance and the helicopter ambulance that would transport Joseph from Honduras to Texas cost thousands of dollars. Not to mention the hospitals in Texas are not cheap either.  At the moment no beds are available for Joseph to go to there anyways.

The school is putting on a marathon to benefit Joseph on January 4^th in Puerto Cortes. The whole city is involved!

I will continue to update this blog post with news of Joseph’s recovery.

To help Joseph and his family please go to Give Forward: Joe French.

ABS Christmas Party with Joseph

Joe and Susie enjoying Omoa's Waterfall

Joe, Alicia and Susie chatting during the sunset

The roommates: enjoying our first week in Puerto Cortes together

T and Joseph making magic

Joseph doing one of the things he does best: Cooking amazing food!

Lago de Yojoa hiking crew

Joe's contagious smile

Joseph, always down for an adventure

To help Joseph and his family please go to Give Forward: Joe French.

Update 1/1/14

The doctors have since stopped the anesthesia medicine to bring Joseph out of the induced coma. Between 24 and 48 hours the doctors then made the decision that Joseph needed a tracheotomy operation to open an air passageway in his esophagus, as he was not independently breathing efficiently since coming out of the coma. The operation was successful and from eyes view he appears to be breathing normal now. 

Yesterday I was relieved to find Joseph more alert than the day prior. He looked into my eyes with his right eye (the left still bruised and closed) and I feel he recognized me. He gripped my hand when I said that I miss him and when I said that I have been in touch with many of his friends and family back in Texas - and they are all very supportive of his recovery. Joseph grazed my hand with his thumb to give me some comfort, my biggest emotional relief during this time thus far. Where a hand grip can be an reflexive action to touch, a thumb graze is something more intentional and personal. I wiped away some tears that were joining around his eyes, but I am not quite sure if this a normal reaction to the medications he is on, or if Joseph is now recognizing that he went through a trauma, and he is grieving. 

The doctors say Joseph will be moved from the critical care unit today and into a private room. Visiting hours will be much more flexible now. I look forward to seeing his progress later today. His mother says they are hoping to transport Joseph to Texas via the helicopter ambulance this Friday. However, more money is needed so they can cover the cost of the flight. It is important that he get to the States for numerous reasons, but essentially because there are no neurological doctors in Honduras to assist Joseph during his recovery and rehabilitation. 

It is now apparent that Joseph is on a long road to recovery. With all of the strength that his family, friends and other loved ones have shown him, not to mention the miraculous resilience that Joseph has shown, we can all be rest assured that he is a survivor. Eventually, he will thrive again, and in new ways and in new paths of his life that are even better than before this tragic experience happened to him. For it is situations like this that change your direction and path, and inspire you to do things you may not have dreamed possible beforehand. 

For myself, experiencing this trauma first-hand and providing all of the emotional comfort that I could find within for Joseph, his family, his loved ones back in Puerto Cortes, and for myself, has changed the course in my own journey. I would like to write about that at a later time here. 

For now, I just look back at the memories I have made with my good friend Joseph since moving to Honduras. At a later date I will share those times with you all here, also. 

Keep hope for Joseph for he is an inspiration of how far a person can be taken when faced with a life-threatening trauma, and survive.....

...and one day thrive yet again! <3

To help Joseph and his family please go to Give Forward: Joe French.

ABS Marathon for Joseph on 1/4/13 Puerto Cortes, Honduras

What a great turn-out we had. The money will be counted and I should have a figure of how much was collected very soon. Thank you to everyone who participated, volunteered, and donated to Joseph and his family. 

Update 1/5/13

Joe has been airlifted from the hospital in San Pedro Sula, Honduras to Dallas, Texas and will be transferred to Baylor Medical Center. 

Joe is making miraculous recovery!

Recovery of Miracle Joe 1/21/14

2/5/14

Written on Facebook
"I got to chat with Joe and his family on the phone today! I caught him during his first time out of his hospital room in Dallas. His parents and he were enjoying lunch at the restaurant downstairs. His Dad told me Joe took his first steps today during physical therapy and he is speaking some words now too. Although it was hard to hear Joe spoke to me directly. I'm really happy to see his amazing progress!! What a miracle!"

2/18/13

Wriitten on Facebook:
I spoke to Joe again last week. He is speaking in full sentences now. Joe, I can't wait to see you again and give you a hug! You are my inspiration everyday now.