From Greg Sargent, pastor, Kansas
City/Columbia/St. Louis, MO:
Your prayers would be greatly appreciated
for Heather Beyer. Heather has been
having problems with a recurring infection that has been diagnosed as MRSA, one
of the bacterial “super bugs” that is not controlled by antibiotics. The infection is most likely a result of her hospitalization
and surgery last year in
2716 Sante Fe
11/29/2004
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From Lonnie Johnson, elder,
Here is the latest on Heather Beyer who is
participating in the United Youth Corp in
Dear Brethren,
Thank you so much for your prayers, your
cards, letters, and support. We
appreciate you so much. Heather is doing
very well. She is out of the hospital
recuperating at the Legacy Institute.
She has a great team of fellow teachers that are very supportive and
uplifting to her. She is feeling good,
and getting stronger every day. It was
very hard to leave her in
Mike and Holly Beyer
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From Lonnie Johnson, elder,
Heather is still doing well, but they are
still concerned about her lung. The
doctors are talking about putting another tube in below her collar bone. They are praying her lung will improve without
the need for this procedure. Heather has
been able to be up and around and is even hoping the doctors might let her
leave the hospital and attend services this Sabbath. Her father, Mike, left today to return home
and his wife, Holly, will be staying with Heather until she is well enough to
make the 30 hour flight back home from
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From a friend via email:
An update on Heather Beyer, a young lady who
was in a very serious condition in
She has been convinced that she needs to
return home to recuperate. There are some
details that need to be worked out to arrange air transportation so your
prayers in that area would be appreciated.
Her parents add, "She is wanting to come back to
Address For Cards:
Miss Heather Beyer
c/o
110 Inthavaroros Maung
Chiang Mai
Telephone#: 011-5394-5627
Fax: 011-5394-5629
Now, other than the address, here is the
message I received and then edited to send out the update:
Update on Heather Beyer in
(Mike & Holly's message:)
"Things are going very well. Heather was moved today into a room where we
can stay with her. In fact, we basically
take care of all her needs from now on except for changing IV's and taking care
of the tube out of her lung. We are to
monitor her temperature, etc. I now
understand why the Surgeon was hesitant to move her out of ICU. He actually wanted to keep her in Sub ICU
longer, but she was pretty discouraged and cried when he told her it would be a
few more days. In there we couldn't be
with her very much at all. Once in a
while they would let us in, but it was rare. They actually let us in ICU more bc she was so sick and they
thought she needed us.
Anyway, the Surgeon said if we would watch
her very close they would go ahead and move her. Heather has been making
fantastic progress. She doesn't look
like the same person she did 2 days ago.
Everyday she is gaining strength, sleeps less and is more alert. The
only tube in her now is one out of her lung.
She is still on IVs, but starting today is able to eat.
Anyway, Mr. Sexton went today and bought her
good yogurt and brown rice so that she can start eating. The hospital had said she could start eating
rice, but they just brought her a bowl of white rice and we figured that wasn't
too nutritious. She ate a whole
container of yogurt and did well.
Her lung is still collapsed, but she is
doing pretty well. She is doing
exercises with a breathing tube to try to build up her air flow. She is about 1/3 there. When she accomplishes the goal, they hope to
take the tube out of her lung. At that
point she will be able to start getting up.
We now know a diagnosis...The Surgeon said..Food poisoning caused from
MSG allergy. Apparently at the school
the cook is very conscious not to use MSG, but everywhere else in Thialand MSG is a major part of cooking. You can buy bags of it right by the flour in
the stores. In fact one of the girls
bought a bag, thinking it was sugar (and not being able to read the language)
and put it on her oatmeal. One taste and
she took the bag to Mr. Sexton to read and he told her what it was. Anyway, everytime
Heather ate out, trying to get a taste of American food, she was being
poisoned. That is why when she went to
Burger King weeks ago she told me how sick she
got. Last week she
went to McDonalds and has been sick every since. The MSG was building up
in her body and eating away at her intestines, stomach lining, etc. She thought
her stomach aches were just her inability to adapt to the Thai food, but
apparently that is not the case.
Today, we convinced her she needs to go home
and recuperate there. She has agreed,
but now the tricky part. We need prayers that the airlines will help us. First of all her Surgeon thinks it could be
3-4 weeks until she is able to make the trip.
As fast as she is improving we are hoping to shorten that time by a
couple of weeks. Mike will need to get
home sooner so he can get back to work, so we are hoping to change Heather's
ticket on Thai Airways to Mike's name so he can use her ticket, and to let
Heather's name be put on Mike's ticket on Singapore Air. They are partners, so hopefully with the
Surgeon's letter that will happen easily.
Mr. Sexton said that if that doesn't work he will ask the Palace to
intervene, but hopefully they will cooperate with the Dr's orders and that
won't be necessary.
She wants to come back to
We stayed one night in a hotel since we have
been here, as the only way we could sleep was sitting up in a chair and we were
starting to stink from no shower. From
now on we will be staying in her room with her.
There is a cot for us to sleep on and there is a shower and bathroom in
her room. The toilet is one of the first
American toilets I have seen since we have been here. On a funny note: There is a sign showing that you don't stand
on top of the toilet to use it...you are to sit on it! We are paying a little extra for AC, but
believe me, it is worth it no matter how much it is!!
I am sorry I have not kept in better touch,
but it is hard. I have to walk about a
mile to an internet cafe and they don't open until
I hope everything is going well. Thank you for passing the news on to
others. We really appreciate it! We are anxious to get home soon.
We miss you all and hope to see you soon,
Love, Mike and Holly"
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From a friend via email:
Steve Bode (LCG Kansas City) reports that
18-year old Heather Beyer (UCG Kansas City, MO) went to
7/10/2003
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From Herb Vierra, elder, Los Angeles, CA:
Heather
Beyer, a United Youth Corps Volunteer serving in
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