This is a post from Elder Landon Cook's mother:

So last night our son called us from the hospital in Melbourne Australia.  I do not have the whole story because I was not home when he called. He had an incredibly painful cornea bacterial infection in his eye and it was so severe that the Doctor told him that if he had waited one more day he would have lost his eye. Landon held it in, not to worry anyone, until he couldn't bear the pain any longer, and grateful he broke down crying from the pain and called his Mission President. I'm sad I wasn't able to be there for his phone call, but blessed he was able to talk to his dad. The Mission President, his wife, doctors and incredible zone leader has been taking good care of him. He has to put antibiotic eye drops in his eyes EVERY hour all day and set an alarm each hour throughout the night to put in the drops. Didn't know it at the time, but most of the pictures from his last email show him wearing his eyeglasses because his eye hurt him so bad he couldn't wear his contacts. I guess this was the start of his painful eye infection. Truly blessed by the Lord for the care he has received from all those around him. Can't wait to give this son of mine a big hug. It's hard for me, as his mother, to not be able to be there and care for him.  This morning at 3am Russell and I received an update email from President Maxwell's wife and the email reads as follows. 


Dear Brother and Sister Cook,

Just a quick update.  Elder Cook is doing much better.  He had a visit with the eye specialist we wanted him to be able to see--Dr. Lawrence Sullivan was able to get him in today and he will visit again tomorrow.  Today they still did not have the culture results which tells them exactly which microbe is causing the infection, but the antibiotic drops are doing the trick, and his eyes are much less inflamed. Dr. Sullivan also gave him some drops to help get the redness out.  

 

Elder Steele is our hero during all of this--he is the zone leader who has been giving Elder Cook his antibiotic eye drops every hour on the hour since yesterday early morning at 5 am.  He will be up every hour with him tonight.  Elder Steele has been driving Elder Cook to appointments and giving me updates.  He is a remarkably caring and competent leader.  Elder Cook has been a trooper.  He has gone through a very traumatic experience, but has been very positive and happy except for the phone call last night--I'm glad he was desperate, because that let us know how really bad things were.  Otherwise, he is as low-key and pleasant as ever, and no one would suspect that he's gone through an intensely painful and worrisome night or two.  

I'll update you tomorrow after the next appointment which is at 11:45 am. Hopefully we'll have a bit more information on the cause (most probably the contact solution) and the expected outcome. 

Thanks for your kind words and your patience--I know it must be so hard to have your dear son going through this at such a distance.  We do know the Lord watches over His missionaries!

Sister Maxwell