PENDLETON — Physician assistant Kristin Schmidtgall, of Pendleton, flew to Mexico on a mission of medical mercy in late December to rescue gravely ill Lincoln Jones, 16 months, of Stanfield.

Lincoln’s parents, Whitney and Travis Jones, took him with them to the Yucatan resort city of Cancun on Dec. 27 for a tropical vacation, scheduled to last until Jan. 4. Whitney Jones, clinic supervisor, works with Schmidtgall in Dr. Bradley Adams’ Eastern Oregon Orthopedic Surgery & Fracture Clinic, Pendleton. Soon after arrival to Cancun, Lincoln showed symptoms of respiratory syncytial virus.

“He became sick on the 28th,” Jones said. “He ended up with RSV. He was exposed at day care. It was day eight, and he had pneumonia in his right lung.”

No help at hospital

The Joneses took their son to Hospital Amerimed Cancun, the medical facility that contracted with their resort.

“From the start when we got there, it was horrible,” Jones said. “It was dirty, dark and dingy. We were stuck in a corner of the ER. No one spoke English well. Before they even looked at Lincoln, they brought us an hour-and-a-half of paperwork. They said we needed to pay $13,000, with $2,500 toward it immediately, before we knew what was wrong with Lincoln for sure. He had not seen a doctor yet.”

The Joneses talked to Travis’ parents in an attempt to pull the funding together between the two of them. Whitney knew how to treat RSV because her nephew had come down with it.

“I was talking to Kristin,” Jones said. “Lincoln had a dry cough, was crying, not sleeping and his chest was retracting. She said, ‘I’m booking a flight.’ That was 9 p.m. She arrived at 4:20 p.m. the following day.”

Lincoln didn’t get the care he needed, Jones said.

“He had one breathing treatment,” she said. “Then the nurse said to keep his oxygen mask on. He didn’t like it, at only 16 months old. His oxygen (saturation) level was steady at 90%, which is super low. I asked for a nasal cannula, which they refused, so he wasn’t hooked up. The nurse threw an oximeter at us. We put it on him, but didn’t get a reading.”

The Joneses didn’t meet with a doctor until 10 hours later.

“After 18 hours in the hospital, they wouldn’t give us a room until we paid $13,000,” Jones said. “Kristin offered to pay. She provided her information over the phone, but they wouldn’t take it. They stopped coming.”

Jones asked if someone could even give her a thermometer.

“They placed it under his arm. When he fought it they gave up,” she said. “His oxygen fell to 87%. We couldn’t keep the mask on his face. Kristin said to demand a breathing treatment.”

Getting professional care

Schmidtgall, after flights from Pasco to Salt Lake City, then direct to Cancun, arrived to find Lincoln low on fluids, dehydrated, vomiting and lethargic.

“Kristin talked to the taxi driver from the airport to Amerimed,” Jones said. “She asked where he would go if he had a sick family member and money was no object. He said Hospiten had lots of big machines.”

Schmidtgall called Hospiten Cancun.

“Kristin said she was a PA from America,” Jones said. “We could go directly to the ER. A doctor agreed to coordinate care. They had a pediatric team on staff.”

Schmidtgall came in, assessed the situation and knew the Joneses had to leave, as Lincoln was no longer even crying.

“We went to leave, and they came to take the IV out and we found the IV was not even in his hand,” Jones said. “There was a hole in his hand. The nurses just shrugged.”

Schmidtgall and the Joneses quickly transferred to Hospiten.

“Even before writing anything, they rushed us to a room and administered a breathing treatment,” Jones said. “We saw an ER doc after just 20 minutes. He was caring. A pediatric surgeon did the IV. They did not force a mask on Lincoln. He was in the hospital five days.”

The Joneses did have to make a $4,000 deposit.

“They came daily and knocked on the door with an itemized statement and only talked about finances after making sure Lincoln was doing better,” Jones said. “They told us when our deposit was close to being used up just to keep us informed. At Amerimed, an intimidating 6-foot-3 guy asked where our credit card was.”

Schmidtgall rated Hospiten “phenomenal.”

“It was big, clean and beautiful,” Jones said. “The nurses were absolutely amazing and attentive and loved Lincoln. You could tell by their demeanor.”

Saving Lincoln from dire straits

Schmidtgall had worked at Dr. Adams’ clinic all day, then went to Pasco at 1 a.m. to catch a 4:30 a.m. flight.

“Kristin stayed with Lincoln 10 to 12 hours per day,” Jones said. “I had also texted her (Dec. 29). She had a plan to take Lincoln to the states. She talked to three medical extraction teams from Florida and coordinated with one to line up extraction to Fort Lauderdale.”

After Lincoln improved, Schmidtgall informed the Joneses how serious his condition had been.

“It was crazy,” Jones said. “Kristin told me, ‘Now I can be candid. In another night, Lincoln would have needed intubation.’”

Jones wanted to highlight the lengths Schmidtgall would go to for her patients and people in the community.

“Without her, I am not sure what would have happened,” Jones said. “She is an amazing provider in our community. I will never know what we did to deserve a person like Kristin in our lives, but if you’ve ever met or been a patient of hers, you might understand why she flew to another country with three hours notice to help Lincoln. She was monumental in his treatment and allowed me to just be a mom while she handled the medical side. She told me she had a gut feeling that she needed to come, and I believe that was God giving her a nudge that we needed her and he needed to use her.”

Schmidtgall said it was a team effort. Her husband, Brandon, a paramedic lieutenant with the Pendleton Fire Department, took time off work to care for their 6-year-old daughter. She had never spent a night without her mommy.

“Charlotte loves Lincoln,” Schmidtgall said. “She was all for it.”

Adams also pitched in by working an extra day.

“I was texting Whitney and looking up one-way flights to Mexico between patients,” Schmidtgall said. “When Brad agreed I should go, I was ready.”

Financial burden remains

Schmidtgall and Jones suggest international voyagers get travel insurance and raise their credit card limits.

“You don’t have to splurge into debt,” Schmidtgall said. “It’s just for flexibility.”

There is a GoFundMe account at shorturl.at/jKQX0 to defray the approximately $20,000 debt the Jones family incurred.

“People have been amazing,” Jones said.

{p dir=”ltr”}Any funds raised beyond the debt for Lincoln’s care are to go toward helping other families in need, Schmidtgall said.

“They’re going to pay it forward,” she said. “Some expenses may eventually be covered by insurance. With international transactions, you have to pay out of pocket up front, then wait three or four months to find out how much might be reimbursed. It’s unclear.”

Buying a one-way ticket to Mexico on short notice might have aroused more suspicion, Schmidtgall said, if she hadn’t had global entry status.

Lincoln is doing well now, Jones said, thanks to the all-hands-on-deck effort.