Rick Whittington thanked God.
It is not uncommon for the Kinder High baseball coach to thank his creator — it is something he profusely does daily. Yet, earlier this week on Tuesday afternoon Whittington felt compelled to give glory to God again.
For Whittington had just received the news that he had been praying for — the news he asked others to pray for as well.
The news that doctors had taken Will Fontenot off of the ventilator.
“I was thrilled, amazed, and so thankful to God for answering our prayers from everyone that’s been praying for Will,” said Whittington, who broke the news on Facebook. “I sat in my truck and took a little time to pray some more and just reflect on how great our God truly is and how much I love Will and his family.”
Fontenot, the star Yellow Jacket football and baseball star, has spent the past several months battling cancer at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
Fontenot received a bone marrow transplant on June 24th but started feeling bad on Fourth of July. Will’s father Brandon Fontenot reached out to his former coach about his son’s health having taken a downturn.
“His dad texted me that he was retaining a lot of fluid that was restricting blood flow to his liver and kidneys and over working the kidneys,” Whittington said. “He has something called Hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), which is a complication from the transplant.”
The community, just as it has multiple times before, responded. There was a prayer service held on July 6th at the baseball field in which more than 100 people showed up to pray for Will’s healing.
That support was very much needed as earlier that morning, Fontenot had been moved to the ICU as fluid had gotten into his lungs. The next day the doctors were forced to install a catheter into his neck to perform dialysis for his kidneys.
Fontenot though had a rough night and ICU doctors placed him on a ventilator. After nearly four full days, Fontenot was finally able to be taken off the ventilator as he began breathing on his own on Tuesday morning.
“They finally took him off the vent and he’s responding to his parents with head shakes,” Whittington said Tuesday evening. “It is a miracle.”
Even though Fontenot is making progress, Whittington is asking for Kinder residents, and others, to continue keeping the young man in their thoughts and prayers.
“He is still in ICU and we all need to continue to pray that God will continue to heal him,” Whittington said.
