Latest Update on Father Benedict

Father Andrew Apostoli spoke to me and asked that we keep praying for Father. The medcated fog is necessary, he said, to conserve Father's strength to fight off all the trauma that his body has endured.



From Father Glenn's Letter of 1/18/04:



Sunday was for Fr. Benedict what Sunday should be - a day of rest. Today there was no scheduled procedures, at least not medically speaking. Thanks to a quiet and devout layman, Fr. Benedict received some spiritual therapy as he was blest with a relic of Saint Francis of Assisi. It seems that Saint Francis made it to Fr. Benedict's side before Blessed Mother Teresa! Evidently a friend who was bringing the relic from Calcutta got unexpectedly stranded in London. Now guess where he's spending the night? Our friary in London!



The situation with Father is still somewhat the same -nothing too new, nothing too bad - at least from what we can see. There is still no immediate response to stimuli except the slight raising of his eyebrow. Remember, that medicinal "fog" Father's swimming in? Well, this is caused not only by the accumulated sedatives in his system together with the prescribed medicine to ease pain, but it may also be the excess blood from the head wound which still needs to be absorbed into Father's system. This accumulated blood on the brain may be suppressing his ability to readily respond to stimuli like voice commands or touch. So, perhaps when the blood is absorbed things might look better. There is no talk about any neurological damage at this time.



Here's the dilemma: sedatives are necessary to ease the pain which reduces stress on the heart, yet Father needs to break through this thick fog he's in. What to do? While the medical people do their thing, we'll do ours. Let's make our prayer not only sincere, but also clear!