Adventist Health Bakersfield | You + Us | Summer 2018

4 Living God’s love by inspiring health, wholeness and hope. Jody Fredrick, 26, is a mother and a wife. Her young life in Micronesia was upended when illness made her increasingly sicker. Doctors diagnosed her with rheumatic heart disease—the result of rheumatic fever. Caused by a bacterial infection that typically starts as a sore throat, rheumatic fever can seriously damage the heart over time. That doesn’t always occur, but when it does, sometimes the damage can be permanent. The Christian-driven nonprofit group MAHI International (MAHI stands for Missions Across His Islands) partnered with Adventist Health Bakersfield to bring Jody, along with her husband, Dohnis, to California for treatment. She came for what was supposed to be a short stay. More than ‘heart sick’ As it turned out, Jody had more than a debilitating Inspiring Wholeness YOU + US : Together i nsp i red ™ Jody’s long road home A moment of grace: Members of the Adventist Health Bakersfield team, including the president of the hospital, paused to say a prayer with Jody before she went into surgery. To Bakersfield and back—a gift of love, life and hope It’s a long way from Kern County to Jody’s remote island home—nearly 6,000 miles across the vast Pacific, in fact. Yet despite the miles and the ocean between them, Bakersfield will always be close to Jody’s heart.