PLEASE BE ADVISED: SOME OF THE IMAGES SEEN BELOW ARE GRAPHIC IN NATURE.

Maynor rode his bicycle down the long, dusty road in Negrito to buy meat for his family. Though only fifteen years old, he already had a common-law "wife" at home to feed. He needed to run his errand quickly so that she could start lunch. Up ahead he saw an neighborhood teenager he knew, leaning against a post. This teen had a rough background in gangs and drugs, and although Maynor knew he shouldn't stop, he decided just to speak to him for a moment. As he drew nearer, he realized the other boy's eyes were red and bloodshot. Through his drugged stupor, he commanded Maynor to surrender his bicycle and cell phone. Before Maynor realized what was happening, the drug addict drew his machete and slashed at Maynor's face. Blood gushed from a gaping wound starting at Maynor's mouth and extending to his right ear. He dropped the bike and cellphone and somehow managed to run the seven and a half blocks to his mother's house. She screamed for a neighbor to give them a ride in a pickup truck, and they headed for the village doctor.


Since the doctor was not able to treat such a serious wound, he bandaged it up the best that he could, started an IV, and instructed them to go to the nearest hospital. They began the hour and a half trip to El Progreso, fear in their hearts and prayers on their lips. There was not much time to spare; Maynor's lungs were quickly filling with blood. He would soon suffocate.


Ninety long minutes later, they burst through the ER doors at the Hospital El Progreso. Maynor was covered in blood from head to foot by this point. He could not survive much longer. The Honduran nurses panicked. What could they do to such a wound? Then someone yelled, "Get the American doctors!"

In an OR just down the hall, a group of doctors from all over the US had come to participate in a medical brigade organized by Medical Missions Outreach and hosted by Team Honduras. We were performing a routine laparoscopic gallbladder removal when we heard shouts coming from down the hall. "Come quick! We need help!" Sparing whom we could from our surgery already in progress, we rushed down to find Maynor on a stretcher with a large group of people crowding around, watching him struggle for his last breaths. Blood stood in pools at our feet. As Steve Taylor, PA, tried to remove the bandages to see the wound, Maynor panicked, flailing his limbs and fighting for his life. "We need sedation!" The doctors managed to sedate and intubate Maynor so that they could begin to suction the blood from his lungs. Then they looked at the wound. Maynor's right cheek was splayed all the way to the jawbone. "Go get Dr. Levitt!"




Rob Levitt, an MD from Ohio, deftly sutured the cheek, layer by layer. With most of the blood now suctioned from his lungs, the breathing tube was able to be removed. Maynor finally began to cough and breathe on his own.



He was transferred to a recovery room, where he rested, groggy from the sedation. When he awoke the next day, he was surprised to have a few visitors he had never seen before. The American doctors explained to Maynor exactly how close he had come to dying. "What would have happened to you if you had died, Maynor? Where would you have gone?" Maynor heard how he could receive complete forgiveness for his sins and eternal life in heaven. Although he did not make a decision at that moment, a seed was planted. He thanked the doctors profusely and promised to stay in touch.


Maynor was just one young man helped by the medical brigade this week. We had a great opportunity to minister as Christ did: to both the body and the spirit. We praise the Lord for 66 souls who trusted Christ as their Savior. Please pray that Maynor soon joins them.



Maynor reads a brochure from Iglesia Bautista El Faro that tells him how he can trust Christ as his personal Savior.


Maynor poses with Reuben Driedger, CCP, who suctioned the blood from his lungs to save his life.