Dengue Fever!

We are back from an "interesting" trip to Cabarete in the Dominican Republic.  Our trip started out well, and were very pleased with the very nice accommodations that my sister and her family had booked for us up in Cabarete.  We planned to spend Thanksgiving weekend with them there at a nice beach house property.  After the first night, Will started showing symptoms of fever, headache, and cough which we just dismissed as the flu.  After day 2 her condition had worsened and we picked up a prescription of Amoxicylin to fight her ear and sinus infection.  By Saturday afternoon she became so weak and dehydrated that she could hardly move, and her fever continued to spike.  Saturday night she became increasingly disorientated, extremely nauseas and started hemorrhaging and we quickly decided to take her to a hospital in Cabarete.  After an initial assessment the doctor said he thought it was quite possibly advanced stages of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, and that she would need to be admitted and quarantined for a minimum of 24 hrs so they could complete the blood work, Chest Xray, and MRI.

I spoke with the doctor and he strongly advised against moving her even to Santiago (where my sister and family live) which is only a 1.5 hour drive.  At this stage, the doctor said that she could bleed out within an hour if not closely monitored.  Flying her back to Port au Prince was even less of an option due to lack of Medical Care, as well as the negative impact that the pressure altitude would have on her hemorrhaging.    At this point, Will is still in Cabarete hospital and will certainly spend the night there.  Our hope / prayer is that she will be well enough tomorrow for the doctor to allow her to be transported to Santiago Hospital where she will be re-admitted for observation.  My sister has graciously offered to take Justin to Santiago with her and look after him - since he is not allowed to be in  contact with Will!

The tentative plan if Will continues to improve through this week, is for her and Justin to fly back to Port au Prince either Friday or next week Monday (those are the only days they have flights) or else I will need to pick her up if she is not able to get on the flight.

Thank you for your prayers

Jason + Family