Shooting Story Defies Belief

I have a little more information about my friend Travis, who was shot on April 9.

He is on a machine that helps oxygenate his blood. I forget the name. He is sedated. He has had an infection. We are now being told he has had no visitors. I hope that isn’t true. It is not possible to send him anything because the covid rules are far beyond reasonable.

I completely understand that the hospital doesn’t want covid sweeping through the trauma center, but no one is getting covid from cards or flowers. Emotional support is extremely important at a time like this, so depriving patients of contact is very harmful. There has to be a reasonable effort to balance risks. They could at least show patients cards and flowers briefly.

I am planning to send a card even if he can’t receive it. The nurses will see it, and they will know people care whether Travis lives or dies. Hospitals let unwanted people die. This is something many medical people would deny publicly with red, flustered faces, but it’s a fact, and medical professionals are much more open about it in private. Travis is costing the hospital a lot of money, no one is visiting him, and he’s black. Also, he has a gunshot wound, and that surely has to affect the way he is perceived by people who are tired of treating minority members who have been shot because of their own unwise behavior.

I wonder if they know the shooting was accidental.

I’m going to look for a big post card. If I send a card, the nurses will be able to read it and learn that Travis is not disposable and that he has a future.

It may well be that everyone at the hospital is pulling for him very sincerely, but when it comes to human nature, it’s generally not smart to assume the best.

I hope the information about visitors is wrong. He has a mother, a sister, and a brother who are perfectly capable of showing up. I would have expected his siblings to make it.

His dad, who is not yet 60, is in a nursing home due to MS. Travis was starting to have great success helping him forgive and turn to God. Now his dad is cut off from that, and he is isolated from an important source of help.

Nothing about the situation makes sense, and no one can do anything to change it by natural means. That means it’s a supernatural situation. The battle is taking place on a higher plane.

Satan hates Travis and wants to prevent him from fulfilling his destiny. Somehow he was able to get him shot and infected, and he has been able to keep him isolated. I can’t tell you exactly what God has been doing. Unlike Satan, he is not predictable. He may be showing Travis just how wretched and toxic his social circle and environment are. For a long time, God has been telling Travis to cut ties. Travis is reluctant to unload people he cares about. He has taught music to a lot of ghetto kids, and he has seen a number of them die or go to prison. He wants to make a difference, and it has been hard for him to admit he can’t. Free will is an obstacle that stops God himself. It’s no wonder the free will of people who don’t listen has stopped Travis so many times.

God is definitely showing Travis who his real friends are. A number of people are praying for him and looking for opportunities to help him. A young lady who graduated before him is doing wonderful things for him. She got his landlord to cooperate. She calls the hospital and updates me so I can report to other people. It’s too bad they’re not married. I don’t think he could do any better. She is very impressive.

When Travis gets out and has a lot of things to get squared away, his family will not participate to any significant degree. He will be helped by friends.

Travis might have to move up here for a while. That’s how badly his life has been shaken up. It would also be God in action. Getting out of Miami is important for Spirit-led people. There are plenty of people who pretend to be Spirit-led there, but the real children of God have been leaving for years.

If God has left you in Miami, it’s probably so you can suffer with the wicked, not so you can change your neighborhood.

I feel very good about the situation during my time with God. I’ll go out on a limb and say it: believe Travis will make it. Appearances don’t matter, because God is able to do anything. I hope the profit Travis derives from this ordeal is tremendous.

More

After posting, I got an unexpected text from Travis’s brother saying Travis was on life support and that they were rushing to the hospital. I texted everyone who is praying for him and gave them the news. I told his brother not to let the medical people give up on Travis.

Afterward, I learned some things from the young woman who is helping Travis.

His brother and mother have not responded to communications for two weeks. At some point, his mother said she was going to take over and didn’t need help. She didn’t put the young lady on the communication list.

The young lady says Travis is still on the same ECMO machine he was on yesterday. For all we know, his brother thinks an ECMO machine is the same thing as life support. That would be a distortion. While they are used to keep people alive, many people are treated with ECMO machines temporarily and then recover. Its main purpose is to assist recovery by taking the burden off the heart and lungs.

It is starting to look like his family got a nasty surprise today because they hadn’t been paying attention. His brother is reacting as though a sudden and likely final crisis had occurred, but it may just be that he is excited because he went a long time without news and then got an update that surprised him.

When my dad died, the ALF called me and said I needed to go to his side. Several hours later he was dead. It wasn’t a big shock to me because I visited him daily. It’s not clear that Travis is in a similar situation. Nothing is clear.

In the midst of the texting that is happening today, a friend of mine who is a nurse said she would be willing to be named as my health care surrogate. That was very touching. I am not afraid of death at all, but I don’t want to be tortured for months by care providers. I may take her up on her offer. She has more firsthand knowledge about looking after dying people than anyone I know.

I certainly wouldn’t want my sister to be named by default. If I become incapacitated, she needs to be as far away as existing technology can put her.