The brothers from the village of La Bendición were helping the brothers from Zapote de Picachos in their community corn harvest so they will have enough to share for their next big church anniversary celebration, and one of the men up the hill felled a tree which tumbled down on top of another brother, Victor. Long story short, Victor is in the General Hospital with a fractured L2 in his back. Gumersindo, from La Bendición, is taking charge of getting everything (including documents, and that's NO small feat!) he needs for surgery; they've already done 5 pre-op tests, but they have to have an MRI before they can do anything else. The catch is that it costs 3,700 pesos, not covered by state medical for Huichols, so we're working on getting those "ducks in a row" so they can go ahead with the test.

I can just imagine how they hauled Victor down the mountain from the corn field to the lake then boated him to shore, then taxied him 45 minutes from the dock to the hospital after the accident. A "simple" hike up the mountain is enough to put most of us in traction. Please pray for Victor; he's obviously in LOTS of pain, he can't move, and he's a 44-year-old father, husband and our brother; and please pray for Gumersindo, too. It is very important that they learn the steps of getting medical care on their own, and Gumer is working very hard at it.