Friday, October 18th, we were at the beach and Stu was heading out in the water with another guy to surf. On the way out a wave came and the other guy lost control of his board and it hit Stu in the face and knocked him out, the problem is that none of us saw it happen. We are not sure how long he was under the water. I had looked out and saw Stu's back, it looked like he was bending over with his head under the water. I thought maybe he was fixing the strap on his ankle. Finally the other guy realized that Stu wasn't there and went looking for him. I saw him pull him up out the the water and realized that something was wrong and took off into the water (I don't swim). On my way out, I yelled to Juls that something was wrong with daddy and to go the the restaurant and get help. I also yelled to Delayna to watch the boys and yelled to them to get out of the water. There was only one other person on the beach so I yelled for him to help. I got to Stu and we started carrying him out of the water. We were able to get Stu into the shore, but the time I got there I was so exhausted that I could hardly stand up. He had come to and was yelling, but had no idea where he was or what happened. He had a hole in his cheek with blood going everywhere, we got a towel on that and he started coughing/vomiting up water. Juls brought two guys from the restaurant and they helped me get Stu into the van and the one guy led me to the clinic. I took Juls with me to help and left Delayna and the boys at the beach. He coughed up water the whole way there and asked about every 2 minutes where he was and what happened. We got him to the clinic, a small 2 room clinic with no back up power, and they started hooking him up to an IV and oxygen. They had me ask him some specific questions to see what he remembered. He knew who we were and where he lived but he didn't know what town we were in or why we were there or what happened. At one point, out of the blue, he started singing "I saw the light" (of course he doesn't remember it) and I told him to stay away from the light! They gave him some meds, took an x ray of his chest and got him into a room. I had Juls call the manager of the villa we were staying at to see if he could go get the other kids from the beach. He was more than happy to help. The kids of course were very scared and crying. Juls kept asking if Stu was going to be ok. So he got the kids back to the villa and got them something to eat (we were supposed to be leaving Saturday morning, so there was no more food left). A man that we had met while we were there, came to the clinic to help us. He talked to the doctor for me and let me know what was going on. God does provide help even when you are in a town where you have no friends or family! They got his face sewn up, which he didn't enjoy! Sometime after that he started remembering things. He now remembers everything except for from about 5 minutes before the accident until about 3 hours afterwards. We stayed the night there but didn't sleep much at all. Every 30 minutes his oxygen machine would go into a high pitched beep until we reset it. Plus the power went out and since they had no back up, we were very hot and uncomfortable.
On Saturday, my birthday, after talking to many people and feeling very stressed because the kids were alone in the villa and I was trying to go back and forth to take care of them and Stu, we were able to get him transferred back to Santo Domingo. Me and the girls were able to pack up and load the van with the help of a Canadian couple we had met. After they loaded Stu in the ambulance, we headed out. A friend met us halfway and took over the driving since I hadn't slept or eaten in two days.
Being back here we are well taken care of, the hospital is much better and we have many friends to help with the kids. He did get an infection in his lungs but it looks like that is clearing up, they are just concerned about a couple of other things. His CAT scan results were normal and nothing was broken or dislocated in his face. If everything is looking good tomorrow, he might get to go home. I know that he is ready, although he will still have some healing to do. He still gets tired very easy and has quite a bit of pain in his face and head. Thank you all so much for the prayers. We appreciate them so much!!!
