Isabella

DENVER — Heartbreak and hope happen every day inside hospitals. The James family experienced heartbreak when 26-year-old Amber James couldn't breathe. She went to a nearby hospital in Thornton but was transferred to Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center in Denver when her condition got worse. James tested positive for COVID-19 while she was 33 weeks pregnant. “I’m here at home powerless not knowing what to do I can’t do anything," said Brett James, her husband, who was not allowed to visit her. "I had never been away from her while she was sick. Ever." Less than 24 hours after Amber was transferred, doctors put her on a ventilator. The next day, doctors performed an emergency cesarean section to save her baby. “And it came to the point where we needed to get the baby out for baby’s sake and it was a risk to mom," said Dr. Roy Bergstrom, an OB Hospitalist in the Obstetrix Medical Group who helped care for Amber James. Bergstrom said he and his team have performed more than a dozen emergency cesarean sections on moms with COVID-19. This one was different. “We’re Jehovah's Witnesses so we don’t accept blood, and that was the biggest struggle for me," said Brett James. "Because the doctor just straight told me, he’s like, 'so if she starts bleeding, you want us to let her die?' Just like that. And well yeah that’s our religion and that’s what we believe in." Bergstrom said he had conversations with Amber James about this before she was intubated. “It was definitely both an ethically challenging thing, and an emotionally challenging thing knowing that may come to be a factor in her care," he said. Luckily, there were no complications in Amber's C-section, and baby Michilah survived. https://www.9news.com/article/news/health/doctors-deliver-mothers-baby-while-shes-unconscious-on-a-ventilator-because-of-covid-19/73-6f33adf5-9c2d-4f5f-a155-370effe4d357

Sin importar arriesgar su vida, ciudadanos acapulqueños pertenecientes a la congregación de los Testigos de Jehová, armaron una brigada para sofocar un incendio forestal en Cumbres de Figueroa. La tarde de este lunes, unas 20 personas se dieron cita en el cerro del mencionado asentamiento para hacer frente a la conflagración dónde no habían llegado personal de Bomberos, Protección Civil o la Conafor. https://www.elsoldeacapulco.com.mx/local/testigos-de-jehova-combaten-incendio-forestal-en-acapulco-bomberos-proteccion-civil-siniestro-guerrero-conafor-5249418.html

Perlas 18 de Mayo 2020.pdf

‘Express burials’ raise fears that Nicaragua is hiding a coronavirus tragedy Such “express burials” have become increasingly common in this Central American country, raising suspicions that the authoritarian government is trying to hide the extent of the coronavirus tragedy within its borders. As the virus that causes covid-19 has spread across the globe, Nicaragua has stood out in Latin America for an almost complete lack of restrictions to contain it. The government of President Daniel Ortega has kept offices and schools open. Authorities deny the virus has spread widely; in this nation of 6 million, one of the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, they insist there have been only 25 cases and eight deaths. Sixty-seven doctors or other health-care workers have been infected with the coronavirus, according to the independent Nicaraguan Medical Unit. It bases its count on symptoms and lung X-rays, because tests are scarce and controlled by the government. Around 90 patients with severe respiratory disease were being treated Friday at the Hospital España in the western city of Chinandega, where Maltez died, according to hospital officials who spoke to The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Doctors there suspect most are covid-19 cases. Among those who are believed to have been infected recently are top hospital officials, radiologists, internists and nurses. The government doesn’t recognize any of those infections as covid-19. It did not respond to several requests for comment. “The hospitals are overwhelmed, the health system is maxxed out,” said Taki Moreno, president of the Pulmonologists’ Association. Read full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/coronavirus-nicaragua-quick-burials-ortega-hiding-deaths/2020/05/17/288d29ac-9633-11ea-87a3-22d324235636_story.html

hanpier Blas y Laura Medina desaparecieron el lunes 4 de mayo. El jueves se recibió una llamada en la que informaban que estaban enterrados en un galpón textil. Móvil sería una deuda. Por: Agencias / Foto: Tomada de @heberlizeth 08:24 PM / 11/05/2020 Una pareja de jóvenes esposos salió de su vivienda. en el estado Carabobo, el lunes 4 de mayo y no volvió. Las horas transcurrían y la angustia familiar aumentaba. Ningún pariente sabía a dónde habían ido Laura Medina y Jhanpier Blas. Cumplidas las 48 horas que plantea las autoridades, la familia denunció el caso ante el Cicpc. La extraña desaparición de los esposos, ambos testigos de Jehová, preocupó a los hermanos de religión, quienes –según apunta la periodista Heberlizeth González—iniciaron una campaña para solicitar ayuda en caso de que alguien hubiese visto a Laura y a “Pier”, como llamaban a su marido. “Para sorpresa de los detectives, el jueves 7 de mayo recibieron una llamada: se trataba del presunto autor de un doble crimen que notificaba sobre la permanencia de unos cuerpos en un galpón textil en Bello Monte, Valencia”, escribió González. Los investigadores se trasladaron al lugar donde los hallaron enterrados. No trascendió cómo les quitaron la vida. La noticia impactó a sus familiares, amigos y allegados tanto de la comunidad de Sansur, en el municipio San Diego (Carabobo) como a los testigos de Jehová que se congregan en un salón del Reino, en la localidad citada. La periodista señala que Jhanpier Blas era de Perú y se vino a Venezuela hace unos años. En 2019 se casó con Laura. Aquí “inició un negocio que fue creciendo hasta llegar a distribuir ropa de niños en mercados y comercios de la ciudad. Al trabajo se unió Laura, sobre todo, luego que contrajeron matrimonio”. Ella se encargaba de ofrecer la mercancía. Las promocionaba en redes sociales. “Una reciente publicación en Facebook demostraba que, debido a la pandemia (del Covid-19) comenzarían a vender tapabocas”, reseñó González, quien amplió con un mensaje tomado de la red social : "Por emergencia nacional se solicita talleres de costura pequeños o grandes para la fabricación de tapabocas. El gobierno ha facilitado los materiales necesarios para la fabricación. Necesitamos es la mano de obra (buena paga)". De acuerdo con una fuente ligada al caso, señala la comunicadora, “presuntamente, esa sería la razón por la que los esposos fueron asesinados y enterrados en el galpón. Al parecer, habrían contratado los servicios de una persona para la fabricación de una cantidad grande de tapabocas, que se traducía en una importante suma de dinero en moneda extranjera, y que -al parecer- no pagaron como lo habrían establecido en un contrato de manera verbal”. Los detectives del Cicpc siguen investigando para capturar al responsable. https://www.panorama.com.ve/sucesos/Mataron-a-pareja-en-Carabobo-y-el-presunto-asesino-aviso-por-telefono-20200511-0067.html

Perlas 11 de Mayo 2020.pdf

El amor de la hermandad espiritual se activa y se ve en acción en tiempos críticos, como en los días de la pandemia del coronavirus. “Los testigos de Jehová hemos hecho todo lo posible por obedecer las medidas preventivas y proteger nuestra salud durante esta crisis sanitaria, pero no somos inmunes a los efectos del COVID-19. Por desgracia, ya han perdido la vida 872 hermanos por culpa de este virus, pero la hermandad mundial ha reaccionado rápido para consolar y arropar a los que están sufriendo. Por encima de todo, confiamos en que Jehová siempre nos da su paz”, indica la organización de los testigos de Jehová en su espacio Prensa, en su página oficial, jw.org. María José Delgado, quien se dedica a llevar la información bíblica a las personas de habla quichua en las montañas de Ecuador, dice que los miembros de la agrupación se apoyados en estos momentos. Los padres de ella se enfermaron y murieron de coronavirus. Su madre, Fabiola de Delgado, quien tenía 56 años y su padre, Ricardo Delgado, quien tenía 60 años asistían a la congregación Praderas, de la ciudad Guayaquil. https://www.expreso.ec/guayaquil/coronavirus-apoyo-hermandad-espiritual-luto-pandemia-11046.html

Aleksandr is married, has two daughters and eight grandchildren. He has two accreditations. He mastered the trades of lathe worker, forging and manufacturing; worked as a lumberjack and as an engineer. Having become a Christian, Aleksandr Ivshin refused to participate in military training. Now he is under persecution as an ”extremist.” https://jw-russia.org/en/prisoners/ivshin.html

PLANS to turn a vacant retail unit into a Kingdom Hall for Jehovah’s Witnesses have been approved. Eden District Council has given the go-ahead for The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of Britain’s proposal for the half-acre site, on the A66, Coupland Beck, in Appleby. According to the design and access statement: “The proposal is located adjacent a residential property. “The area is open rural farmland with just a handful of houses. “These comprise generally of two storey stone homes, render and rough cast walls under, generally, a slate roof.” It also stated: “The local congregation was established in the mid 1950’s and has steadily grown since then to approximately 75. “At present they meet in the township of Bongate where their present hall has undergone several alterations to cater for the growing numbers. Read more: https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/18434061.jehovahs-witnesses-cumbria-given-approval-place-worship/

More than 4,000 prisoners of concentration camps wore purple triangles on their chests. Because of their faith, they refused to salute Hitler, pick up weapons and fight. On the 75th anniversary of the liberation, the peace-loving Jehovah’s Witnesses are again in prison, this time in Russia. How did the liberating country become an oppressor? https://jw-russia.org/en/news/2020/05/3.html

According to data on May 4, 2020, Feliks Makhammadiyev, who had a damaged lung, is recovering in the prison hospital; the threat to life has passed. Believers Budenchuk, Miretskiy, Gridasov and German also report feeling better. They are forced to work ten hours a day. https://www.jw-russia.org/en/news/2020/05/2.html

Katherine Jackson, the Jackson family matriarch, turns 90 today. Granddaughter Paris posted a lovely photo and caption on Instagram. Katherine’s son, Jermaine, did as well as other family members. Katherine Jackson is a study in survival. Nothing about her story is simple. Her life with Joseph Jackson was like a four hour German opera. Her relationship to her children, especially Michael, could need a team of shrinks to understand. There’s also her deep religious devotion to Jehovah’s Witnesses. I sat behind her for weeks on end at Michael’s 2005 trial, where Katherine heard a lot of things said about a son no one should hear. She did it with grace and dignity https://www.showbiz411.com/2020/05/04/michael-jacksons-mom-katherine-jackson-turns-90-today-and-granddaughter-paris-posts-lovely-photo

So true dear @Arauna

Thanks @Arauna for your comments. Sometimes we complain about our circumstances, for instance current financial issues due to Covid-19 not considering that there are people experiencing harder situations

Perlas 4 de Mayo 2020.pdf

According to tabulations April 20, 2020, three years after the liquidation of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ communities, 332 people became victims of criminal prosecution, 166 of these undergoing imprisonment. These are honest, non-drinking workers: teachers, builders, firefighters, accountants, lawyers. Authorities ruin their career, paralyze their life. From left to right, top to bottom: Galina Dergacheva, Sergey Loginov, Igor Trifonov, Galina Parkova, Vitaliy Popov, Elena Nikulina, Dmitriy Vinogradov, Maksim Amosov https://www.jw-russia.org/en/

In the morning of April 29, 2020, groups of armed security forces invaded at least seven homes of residents of Pavlovskaya and Kholmskaya villages for searches and interrogations, exposing believers to the risk of infection during the pandemic. A 62-year-old believer was taken to Krasnodar for interrogation, and a written recognizance not to leave the place was taken. Illustrative photo https://www.jw-russia.org/en/news/2020/05/1.html

THE mum of brain cancer survivor Ashya King is stuck in locked-down Spain after splitting from her Jehovah’s Witness husband. Naghmeh and Brett King sparked a 2014 manhunt after taking their son, then five, out of a UK hospital against doctors’ advice. They could not get proton therapy on the NHS and were arrested after fleeing to Malaga. The couple, both practising Jehovahs at the time, were briefly jailed. Ashya, ten, has now made an “amazing” recovery. But Naghmeh, 50, has revealed she left Brett, 56, and their seven kids in Milton Keynes, Bucks, and headed to their holiday home days before the travel ban was enforced last month. And she said that Jehovahs were branding coronavirus an “Armageddon”. She explained: ‘“My kids are at home and terrified this is Armageddon while I am stuck here in Spain. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11530647/ashya-king-brain-cancer-mum-spain-split/

Dermatologists around the world are gathering data on what may be largely overlooked symptoms of COVID-19: skin conditions ranging from rashes to “pseudo-frostbite.” Many viral illnesses—including chickenpox, measles and mononucleosis—are accompanied by telltale skin rashes, often a result of the body’s heightened inflammatory response while fighting off infection. Though more research is needed, a growing number of case reports and preliminary studies suggest SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can also affect the skin. In late March, an Italian physician submitted a letter to the editor of the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, describing skin conditions that affected about 20% of 88 COVID-19 patients analyzed in the Lombardy region of Italy. Most of them developed a red rash on their torsos, while a few suffered hives or blisters resembling chickenpox. Then, in early April, a dermatology organization representing more than 400 French dermatologists issued a statement noting that among probable COVID-19 patients they had seen skin symptoms including hives, red rashes and frostbite-like lesions on the extremities. And finally, in mid-April, in a letter to the editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, a group of Italian physicians described a chickenpox-like rash as “a rare but specific COVID-19-associated skin manifestation.” https://time.com/5827912/coronavirus-skin-rashes/

April 30, 2020, 2:12 PM COURT: S.D.N.Y. TRACK DOCKET: No. 1:20-cv-03366 (Bloomberg Law Subscription) An entity owned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses sued the owners of the religious whistleblower site FaithLeaks on Thursday for allegedly infringing copyrights by posting the group’s materials publicly on the internet. The Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania says the Truth & Transparency Foundation illegally reproduced 74 of its in-house videos on the FaithLeaks site. FaithLeaks’ website says it is a “religious document archival project” that collects documents from whistleblowers in religious communities. It has published internal Watch Tower documents concerning the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ handling of sexual abuse claims and personal data. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/jehovahs-witnesses-sue-faithleaks-owners-over-convention-videos

Gene Deitch, Prolific Animator, Is Dead at 95 In a six-decade career, he created Tom Terrific, revived Tom and Jerry and won an Academy Award for a cartoon based on a Jules Feiffer story Among Mr. Deitch’s earliest jobs while working in Prague was making new “Tom and Jerry” cartoons for MGM. He ran into several obstacles.Credit...Warner Bros. Home Entertainment https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/arts/gene-deitch-dead.html https://mustsharenews.com/tom-jerry-illustrator-dies/