Motherhood & the Fight for His Life (Video)

Month 9: World Race- Ukraine

 Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
       so great is his unfailing love.

 For he does not willingly bring affliction
       or grief to the children of men.

Over the past two weeks Trevor Currington; a dear friend on my squad became seriously ill with the most fatal strains of Malaria. As the days of his illness progressed it became clear to us that he condition wasn’t stable and his life was in question.  Throughout this entire year I have prayed for God to help me love people in supernatural ways, for my heart to have empathy and compassion like I had never felt before- I asked God to break my heart for what breaks His.

When i first got the call Trevor was in the first stages of being sick, I was literally stepping into a taxi on my way to the train station to meet up with our other teams in Eastern Ukraine, 12 hours away on the Russian border. I stepped back out of the taxi and asked Austin if I could stay in Kiev….they insisted that they would take good care of Trevor and that they were more than capable to handle everything, and that I had nothing to worry about.  They were right….If Trevor needed anything, I knew that Tyler and Austin would have it under control. So, I continued on as planned.
                                                                  
As I continued to get calls of his condition worsening in the upcoming days, I was reminded of the day I left home. Looking into my mothers face as I left and seeing her hold back the tears and she let me go and stuffed her worries deep down inside.  When Austin called and said “Trevor is a 9 out of 10 on a scale of serious complications- he isn’t looking good.”-something shifted inside of me, something that I can only try to describe as a motherly emotional reaction;  I had a feeling as if one of my children were being threatened-  my heart sank to a point of helpless nausea. In this moment I realized that God had answered my prayers and that I had now possessed the ability to love my team in a way that surpassed seasonal friendship or convenient momentary bonds; but true spiritual ties of family… brother & sisterhood.

A few days later I find myself awake in pain at 4AM, so i decided to stay back from ministry and try to sleep
it off. 4 hours later our host mom was praying for me and i had waves of nausea and proceeded to fall to the floor and black out- At
which point they took me to the hospital. The trip to the hospital
consisted of throwing up and another blackout and they wheeled me into
the infectious disease ward. Over the next 6 hours my pain increased
and they were figuring that I had appendicitis or tropical disease such
as malaria and I would most likely need to go in for immediate surgery
if is was my appendix.  As they continued to do tests and invasive exams
one of the nurses said to me in broken English “Ovaries ruptured.”  At that point i lost it.

I felt alone. I felt fear. Thoughts of not being able to have children crossed my mind. Yet again some deep mother instinct sent me in hysterical tears. The tools in the hospital were primitive and painful, there were nurses pulling at me and urgently telling me things in a foreign language, I was confused, frustrated, and scared about what may happen next. All I could do was cry out “Jesus, Jesus, jesus……”  I entered new levels of faith when I decided that I would rather have my friends from my World Race family in the the room praying for me rather than ever go under surgery in Ukraine. This was a level of faith I have never stepped into before. Prayers & words of Truth-the word of God held more value to me than anything that hospital could do for me.

They found that my ovaries were nearly ready to rupture which was
causing my bladder to inflame and get infected with bacteria as well.
They put me on immediate IV meds to try to release the eggs that had
backed up, causing the infection in the ovaries, before permanent
damage and or bursting were to happen.I was on observation and IV for
three days and I was released this morning with a load of pills to
take, and they hope to have all issues resolved by meds after 10 days.
Praise the Lord!

While laying in the hospital bed I kept thinking about Trevor….what he must have felt, what his in encounters with God must have been like…… God then began to write His words on my heart…

I have been with Trevor every step of the way, I have heard your prayers.  As with you, I have never left you or forsaken you.

I am now doing very well and Trevor was evacuated to London where he is being released back to the US soon. Through all of this I have continued to find strength in Praising God for every moment of these trails. His hand has been over this squad every step of the way! THANK YOU LORD!

James 1:2-3

The below is Trevor’s story in detail- written from the viewpoint of Austin Robertson, who leads the squad with me and is an incredible friend, brother, and leader. He was alongside Tyler Woodham & Team “One Love” who were supporting Trevor in person through this journey- To God be the glory for how how they were used in the story of Trevor’s victory over death.

—————————-
Written by Austin Robertson.

This blog is for my friend and
brother who just fought through a battle for his life. His name is
Trevor Curington, and he’s one of the most courageous men I’ve ever
met. Here is the story. Basically, it starts with your worst nightmare
as a world racer. You’re sicker than you’ve ever been before in your
life. You have absolutely no idea what’s wrong with you. If it’s the
sickness that you think it might be, you’re in a country and on a
continent that can’t do much to treat it. Nobody at any of the
hospitals you’ve been in speaks more than 2 words of English. You’re
finally put in a primitive hospital where your friends aren’t allowed
to come in your hospital room, and your parents are half a world away.

Trevor was taking an 18 hour train ride with his team from Kiev to
southern Ukraine on September 6 when he first started feeling sick. It
started with dizziness, nausea, and headaches. Over the next couple
days, an upset stomach and a fever were added. His team took him to the
local hospital who put him on an IV and then released him. Then he
started getting worse. The fever wouldn’t break, and he would pass out
a couple times a day. The team took him back to the hospital, and
that’s when I got the call about his condition. I immediately got on
skype to call his father in the States to let him know of the
problem. We quickly made
arrangements to fly him up to a Kiev to a better hospital with his
friend and teammate, Tyler. Unfortunately, he was already too sick to
get on a plane so they admitted him to a different hospital. By the
next day, they took the risk to fly him up to Kiev where I would meet
them at the airport. He blacked out seven times that day including as
he was boarding the plane. The airport officials took Trevor and
Tyler’s bags off the plane once they saw him black out, but the Lord
intervened and the officials then decided to let him on. (Quick
note…in addition to honoring Trevor, this blog is also very much
about glorifying the Lord because he came through relentlessly on
multiple occasions and exactly when we needed him the most.) Trevor
passed out a couple times on the plane, and Tyler would do everything
he could to bring him back to consciousness. Their plane was scheduled
to arrive at midnight on September 12, and I was waiting for them at
baggage claim, but I couldn’t find them anywhere. I described the guys
to a woman there, and she said there
was an emergency on the plane. Moments later, an ambulance pulled up
and I saw Tyler in it and Trevor on a stretcher. We quickly went to the
airport hospital where Trevor passed out trying to get from the
ambulance to the bed and was quickly evaluated. We were then taken by
ambulance to city hospital #4. Tyler’s and my original intention was to
take him to a modern hospital in town by taxi. We lost that option when
we had to use an ambulance. We later found out that the hospital where
we wanted to take him wouldn’t have admitted him. Again, praise the
Lord. At hospital #4, Trevor was evaluated until 4 AM. He passed out as
he sat up while they were in the process of taking a blood sample. The
doctors came rushing over, threw water on him, and slapped his face
until he came back. 

Tyler and I were then forced to leave and still had no idea what
was going on or how serious it was. When we arrived at the hospital the
next day, we found out Trevor had been transferred to hospital #9. We
had no idea where that was
or how to get to him, but the Lord sent us help. He sent us Jane who is
an English speaking doctor, and she immediately put us in her car and
took us straight there. It was from Jane that we found out what it
was. It was malaria, and it was bad. We’ve had plenty of malaria on the
squad this year but nothing like this. He must have been bitten by a
mosquito in Africa, and it likely just sat in his system until it
erupted. Jane said there are four kinds of malaria, and Trevor had all
of them. Malaria can be deadly, and Trevor had it as bad as you can get
it. She said this was the one hospital that can treat cases of
malaria. However, the hospitals here aren’t like US hospitals. The
facilities and technology are extremely primitive. They don’t let you
visit patients in their rooms, and there are bars over the windows. In
addition, they don’t have any money, and therefore, don’t have any
medicine. Tyler and I couldn’t believe it. We thought we had finished
what was required of us. We got him to the hospital, and they’ll take
care of it from here. Not the case. Jane explained that each patient
has to pay for their own medicine. Otherwise, the patient just lays
there until the patient gets better or doesn’t get better. I went
straight to the phones, and through a local contact in town, the Lord
provided us with a doctor in the city who could get medicine out to
us. He arrived that night and got him started on the medicine. I later
found out that the medicine was started just in time. The malaria was
close to getting to his brain, but the medicine that was started
that night likely prevented it. Thank you, Lord. After the medicine had
been started, the doctor pulled me aside and told me how bad it was. He
said on a scale of severity, he was a 9.5 out of 10. I asked him if we
could medevac him out of here immediately to get to a better
hospital. He said he didn’t think Trevor would survive a flight to the
US or even to Western Europe. I could feel the tears welling up in my
eyes as he spoke, and they’re in my eyes again right now as I type this
and think back on those moments. I told Tyler who then told Trevor’s
father and could barely get the words out. Trevor’s dad was on the next
flight out to Kiev. I prayed healing over Trevor from outside his
window that night and members of Team One Love, who are serving in Kiev
this month, slept on the sidewalk below his window the whole night so
he wouldn’t be alone. I tried to sleep that night but couldn’t. I could
only think about him lying alone in that bed knowing that he was in
rough shape while his parents, who must have felt completely helpless,
were half a world away.

Tyler
and I arrived the next morning and were met by surgeons. They said his
spleen had ruptured while trying to fight the malaria and had to be
removed. We waited at the hospital all day for him to come out of
surgery. Finally some good news…successful surgery with no
complications. The doctor told us how strong he was and that his spleen
had bled out enough into his abdomen to be fatal. Praise the Lord that
the surgery happened just in time. His dad, Dan, arrived that
afternoon. I had to fight back tears again as I watched Dan walk up to
the barred window and greet his son. Finally. Finally, Trevor had one
of the closest people in his lives at that window. 

For
the next 4 days, Dan, Jake, Tyler, and I would spend all day, every day
at the hospital. We were on the phone with family, Adventures in
Missions, members of the squad, doctors, insurance companies, and the
US Embassy. The Lord sent us two faithful Ukranian translators, Taras
and Katia, so we could communicate with the doctors, and Trevor was
improving to the point where we could speak with him and encourage
him. A specialist had just arrived in Kiev from Uganda, likely where
Trevor got malaria, and had better medicine with him. Thank you,
Lord. As soon as the new medicine was given to him, he started to
respond. The parasite count started declining, and his condition
started improving even more.

As
of September 18, Trevor and his dad are no longer in Kiev. The doctors
said he was stable enough to medevac him to London to finish
recovering. He’ll likely be there for a week or two and then be well
enough to return to the US. As I write this, all I can do is praise the
Lord. He heard the prayers of people all over the world and responded
by giving us exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it. I want
to honor Trevor as well. That boy fought so hard. We never did tell him
how serious things were. We never told him that the doctors said it was
a 9.5 out of 10 or that the amount of blood in his abdomen was enough
to be fatal. Maybe the doctors told him. If they did, he didn’t say a
word about it. He certainly didn’t need to hear about it from us. He
just needed to know that we were in his corner, that people all over
the world were praying for him, to keep fighting, and that we loved
him. It’s a joy to be writing this today knowing that he is in London
and recovering well. Thank you, Trevor, for being the definition of
courage, and thank you, Lord, for being exactly who you are.