Some Complications for Keai

Greetings from a dreary and cold day in London. While checking my email in the crew room at the hotel, I got the following from the folks at Heart Gift. Seems like little Keai is having some complications. Please keep the little guy in your thoughts....

"Keai had a follow up visit yesterday with Dr. Wright, and as it turns out, he still has a lot of fluid in his chest cavity. Dr. Wright gave him a healthy dose of medication, and he will have a follow up on Thursday morning, when he will have another chest x ray. If the medicine does not do the trick then Keai will have to be readmitted to the hospital, and the drainage tube reinserted.

He did attend the UT game on Saturday with the Hammonds, which he thought it was really cool, so that was a nice diversion on a beautiful Saturday. KXAN arrived with a camera, and hopefully it will be on the news story they air when Keai finally goes home."

Following Up

Little Keai is now home from the hospital and recovering at the home of the sponsoring family. I am a little bummed because he will be going home on the 7th and I have a schedule conflict at work that prevents me from being able to escort him home. It would have been nice to be involved in the whole process, but I am sure that he will have a great time with whoever is chosen as his escort.

I received a link from Heart Gift that had a radio spot that the local public radio station ran about his visit to the states.

http://heartgift.org/images/uploaded_images/KUTHeartGift.WMA

More About Keai

Text from the email I got from the director of Heart Gift, the medical charity sponsoring Keai Sun. He had his operation on the 9th....

"Sun Keai remains in the hospital and is not in the best of moods these days. He still has a drainage tube in and a little fluid around his lungs. Once the tube is removed, it will be 36 hours before he can be released, so it will probably be Wednesday before he can head home to the Hammonds. He is recovering in the IMC.

Since he is so infatuated with McDonald’s, we have arranged a special surprise for him today: a visit from Ronald McDonald!! Maggie Carter, Dr. Fox’s nurse, made all the arrangements for this special visit and old Ronald himself will be arriving today around 1:00 pm to visit with Keai."

Chilling in Chile

Getting to fly Santiago is great, mainly because like the other South American flights, it's an all-nighter in both directions. You sling some drinks and food, people sleep for about 8 hours, you serve them a breakfast, and then you land. The downside, is that like the other South American trips, we just get the day layover, or lean-over, as we call them. You arrive in the morning, sleep all day, then fly home. A great way to rack up 20 hours of flight time, but not much else.

The weather on Sunday was overcast, but I managed to snap a photo outside the hotel, trying to capture the Andes mountains. You can just make it out.

The hotel does offer us a free breakfast, with everything from omelets to order, to fruit and cereal. After a date with an Ambien, I woke up at 5pm and went down to work out (still on the health kick, now down about 12 pounds). A quick shower and then a rendezvous in the lobby for pick up.

I got a bottle of Pisco for my friend Tricia (10 years ago, Chile was the first place I used my travel passes, to visit her while she was studying abroad) and a magnet for my friend Carla in Duty Free.

I got stuck with first break, which I don't particularly enjoy because I am usually not tired enough to sleep (on even numbered flights, even numbered positions get first choice, odd numbered flights, odd positions get first choice). We were flight 940 going home, and I was position nine, so I got stuck with first break. I managed to sleep for about 30 seconds I think.

We served Pastel de Choclo for dinner, a Chilean delicacy made of ground corn and basil. Even for a coach meal, it was pretty good.

We had one gentleman onboard who looked like an extra for the movie Outbreak, coughing and sneezing. He probably has bubonic plague, which means I probably have it now.

More about Keai and His Host Family

Local family takes in Chinese heart patient