Rex Barnes Served and Blessed by Ward Members

    Ward member Rex Barnes lives on a ranch in Clements.  In  the last part of April he contacted COVID-19 and became very sick.  He was in a coma and ventilator until June 10. He has a daughter Alaina Dahl who lives on the property, and another daughter Danielle Mellot who is from Montana and came to help. At this point, the doctors asked the daughters to allow them to "pull the plug" on him. Unless he had mental damage they wanted to hold out.  His lungs didn't look good but all other vitals were excellent.

   Bishop Holden asked the ward to fast and pray for Rex on May 16.  That was the first day that the doctors were able to lower the pressure and the pure oxygen.  Relief Society service leader Ardell Gillingwater said, "Truly this was a miracle because he improved the next two weeks enough to be moved out of urgent care and to a hospital in Modesto."  He was given blessings by Dave Cundari and Dave Gillingwater.  The next day the hospital was able to take the tracheotomy tube out, and four days later, the feeding tube.  "Another set of miracles!" sister Gillingwater reported.

   While all this was going on it was noticed that the house and property needed a lot of attention. The Relief Society came and helped clean out the house so it would be wheel chair and hospital bed accessible. This job took over two months. Meanwhile the Elders Quorum came and did some work on the ranch and Casey Haynes and Bishop Holden helped get a gate to secure the property.

Sister missionaries also came to help.  Left to right: Sisters Otto, Benton, Ashcraft and Flores.  The little girl in front is Rex's granddaughter Andilyn.  The missionaries also taught her a few lessons.