This account of Taylor's accident is taken straight off of his missionary blog:
Dear Friends and Family,
I was waiting and wondering this afternoon why I hadn't heard from my boy yet, when I got a call from the mission president's wife. She said that Taylor had been in an accident. She said that he and some other missionaries were going to the church to play basketball. Taylor opened a huge sliding metal gate and it broke and fell on his head. The gate knocked him to the ground where he hit his head again on the curb. Thankfully, one of the missionaries that was with him was a trained EMT. They gave him a blessing and he cared for him and called an ambulance. Eventually, a lady stopped and asked if she could give him a ride to the hospital. When they told her they were waiting for an ambulance, she told them that it could take hours. So, they loaded up in the car and went to the hospital. The lady even gave him some brand new pajamas that she had just bought for her son because his clothes were bloody. What an angel. I am very thankful for her.
The Antivilo's met them there and have been very involved in his care. He has a neurosurgeon that was trained in Puerto Rico and then the church has a doctor there that they are consulting with also. He has 20 something stitches on his head and they x-rayed him and gave him a CT scan. He was very confused and has a concussion and so they are keeping him overnight in the hospital. The missionary that is a EMT is also staying with him tonight.
It has been a very trying and emotional afternoon and evening. Here is a first-hand account from one of the missionaries that was there I hope he doesn't mind. It was very disturbing for me to read, but it really tells what happened:
"still pouring rain bye the way and we were soaked. elder mcbride opened up the huge wrought iron gate to the church that slides open. he opened it enough to walk in and went in and then the support pole for the gate broke and the entire gate fell on him. the gate hit him in the back of the head and then he turned sideways and fell over backward and hit his head on the curb as well. so he started having convulsions and bleeding from his head, apart from my comp and i and him and his comp there was one other companionship there. by now there was a huge crowd of people around not doing anything. elder lesuier and i got our shirts off and held them to the back of his head to stop the bleeding, and then i had mcbride´s comp elder sena hold my shirt so that i could give him a blessing. here they have no ambulances so people were coming on motors to try to take him and we kept saying no cause we all had to stay together and were all trippin out cause emergencies are handled a lot differently here. an suv stopped with two ladies in it and we got him loaded in the car and tried to grab all of our stuff and left. 2 of our 3 phones didnt work cause they were now wet but we finally got a hold of the mission president to tell him what was going on. we got him to the hospital and they brought out a gernie and started doing their thing. basically things are a lot different here than what i am used to in the states so im glad that everything turned out alright. they got him stitched up and he is going to stay in the hospital overnight so that they can keep an eye on him to make sure that he is okay."
I just got another phone call from sweet Sister Antivilo. She said that Taylor's companion called tonight and said that he was worse and he was throwing up. They went over to see him and then talked to both doctors again. They both reassured her that he was okay and that it was normal for what he was going through. They thought about letting him call me, but he was pretty out of it and medicated and falling asleep. She is very confident that he is being properly taken care of and will call if anything goes wrong.
Please keep Taylor in your prayers everybody. He could use a letter from anyone who can write also - to help keep his spirits up. We love him so much and pray that he will recover quickly. I will keep you updated.
Chrissie
Here are pictures of that time that we got later:
Ouch
The horrible giant gate (already fixed). See the bags of cement
At the hospital in the DR - Letters from missionaries
Elder Allen (the EMT), Elder ? (the area doctor), Taylor, ?, President Antivilo and Elder Sena
Still in the DR
