My Brother Johnny (Part 4 of 7)

My parents called me at home and told me to call Uncle Dave and have him let the family know. We were also to get Earl Gubler to come over and help my Dad give another blessing. I dialed Uncle Dave's number.
"Hello"
"Is Uncle Dave there."
"This is Dave."
"This is Billy Loveless."
"Hi Billy. What can I do for you?"
"Johnny, well, he...."
"Did he fall out the window again?" (I think Dave thought I was making a prank call.)
I chuckled. "No. He has a disease."
"He does!" Dave sounded very surprised, yet not believing any word of my supposed (as he thought) fake alarm. "What kind of disease?"
Dave's response made me giggle while I tried to explain this serious condition. "It's where his throat closes off and he can't breath. I think it's called, ah, epiglotumus or something like that."
"Oh my that's terrible!"
It was apparent that Dave wasn't buying any of this. This time I couldn't stifle my laughter because Uncle Dave was acting so nonchalant about it all. "The doctor says..." (Laugh) "...that he's only seen five cases of this and they..." (Laugh) "...have all died." (Laugh)
"Where is he know?" (By now I'm sure Dave thought I was joking about the whole thing.)
"My parents are coming home..." (Laugh) "...from the doctor's with Johnny..." (Laugh.) "...and my Dad and our neighbor will give him a blessing..." (Laugh) "...and then they will take him to the hospital." By this time I had tears in my eyes from trying to repress (unsuccessfully) all my laughter.
"What hospital is he in?"
"Primary..." (Laugh) "...Childrens Hospital." I managed to get out between dry heaves of laughter.
By the time I was mercifully off the phone, Earl Gubler arrived and then my parents came home with Johnny. Dad and Earl gave him a blessing and my parents started off to the hospital. The rest of the children and I came close behind in the van. We even stayed in touch by CB radio. We were very worried for Johnny, but we knew he was going to be okay. We waited outside the hospital. A while later Dad came out and updated us on his condition.
"Well, kids, they were able to get a tube down Johnny's throat before it closed off entirely, so he can still breath."
We each breathed our own sigh of relief.
"Will he always have to have that tube in there?" Vera asked.
"No, they'll give him some medicine to make that open back up gradually. We're lucky though, if we hadn't have gotten him here in time they would have had to cut an air hole right here." Dad pointed to a spot on his own throat just above his collar bone. "He would have had that his whole life."
The medical staff took lots of pictures of Johnny in the hospital so they would know how to treat such a condition if they saw it in the future. After a few days Johnny was able to come home from the hospital.