This is from the Courter family in Brazil.

Dear Family and Friends,

Greetings from Brazil! I know many of you have been praying for us this week, and possibly only have bits and pieces of information. Friday morning Mom woke up with a fever and body aches, she spent most of the day in bed. Saturday morning some red spots appeared on her right leg. By Saturday afternoon the redness had covered most of her leg between her ankle and knee and she was having trouble walking. There was a debate on whether to take her to see a doctor (hospital) or not. The decision was to wait till Sunday morning to see if Mom still had a fever and if her spots got any worse. Mom woke up Sunday morning wet with sweat, but her fever had broken, so we decided to still wait and see what happened before seeking medical attention. Dad was to preach Sunday morning at Peter Doolittle’s church (Lawanda Duarte’s brother across town) so Dad loaded us kids up while Mom and Anna stayed home. The Duarte’s live right across the street from us and offered to check in on Mom and bring a meal to her for lunch. After church Lawanda came over to check on Mom and she found her fever growing and the redness increasing. Dad was notified and we decided that as soon as Dad got home he and Mrs. Duarte would take Mom to the hospital (emergency room). Although Lawanda thought it was hemorrhagic Dengue fever, the doctor diagnosed it as Erisypella – a streptococcus blood poisoning. It is very fast growing, hence the fast spread of the rash, but very hard to get rid of. If not cured it will grow into necrosis – where tissue starts dying causing loss of limb and possibly life. The admitting doctor said that the stay would be 3 days. The treatment is large doses of Penicillin through IV every 6 hours. Monday our doctor never showed up to check up on Mom so she was assigned another doctor. That Doctor said that the hospital stay for this type of Erisypella is 7-10 days – not welcomed news as you can imagine! As of now we have not been given any certain release date, although her leg is improving.
Anna is now almost 6 weeks old and seems to be acclimating well to her hospital stay. Mom has an apartment in the maternity ward that allows Anna to stay with her (away from bad germs, etc). We are all taking turns staying with Mom to help her. The rest of the family is carrying on as best as possible.
Sunday afternoon Mom and Dad were still at the hospital when Joshua fell and tore a chunk off of his index finger. There was enough skin missing that it couldn’t be stitched back, so we just cleaned it up as much as possible and placed a bandage on it. Dad was to preach at Peter’s church again that night with the kids to sing and play instruments. Everyone piled in the car and we got about 20 yards when the wiring in the van caught on fire! Everyone jumped out and got the instruments out and then ran for some water. The fire would go out after a bucket, but then start burning again. This went on until Dad was able to disconnect the battery. We took the van Monday to a mechanic and the entire wiring harness will have to be replaced. Lord-willing, we will get the van back Saturday, but the way Brazilians work, it will be more like Wednesday or Thursday of next week.
Thanks for Praying! Please check our family blog for more updates (www.anthonycourter.blogspot.com).
Jessica for the Courter family