Mason attends the funeral

God answered our prayers that Mason would be able to attend the funeral. He was transported to the funeral home from the hospital using a patient transport service. He was able to sit in a recliner during the service so that he could have his feet proped up.

He was also able to make it to the internment service at the cemetary. This was where the military did their honors and presentation of the flag. It was powerful and it was great for him to be there. Many people had a chance to see him and speak briefly with him before he needed to head back to the hospital.

Skin graft surgery on hold

Mason's doctors and physical therapists have taken a look at the areas that seemed to be the most severely burned. Over the last 24 hours there has been a steady improvement and the latest advice from the doctors is that they think he may not need skin grafts. The surgery that was scheduled for Thursday has been postponed until Friday. On Friday they will be able to tell if the severely burned areas are beginning to grow back skin. Please continue to pray.

Also his hand continues to improve and is bandaged only around the palm and pinky.

Jeff

Additional Funeral Information

The funeral will be on Wednesday at 1pm at Mission Funeral Home. It will be immediately followed by the burial, which is at Live Oak Cemetery. There will not be a reception afterwards.

David

Funeral Home Address Correction

The correct zip code of the funeral home is 78745.

I've fixed the previous posts as well.

David

Funeral & Visitation

A firm date and time has been set for both the visitation and the funeral.

The visitation is set for Tuesday, Nov 28 from 6-8pm.

The funeral is set for Wednesday, Nov 29 at 1pm.

Both the visitation and the funeral will be held at Mission Funeral Home. Please note that there is more than one Mission Funeral Home. The address below is the address for the correct location.

Mission Funeral Home
6204 S. 1st Street
Austin TX 78745.
512-444-3355

David

Photos

Mason's physical therapist, Leslie, took some pictures of Mason at the hospital on Saturday.

Dad and Mason

Leslie, Mason's sweet physical therapist, and Mason's big glove.

Me and Mace

I couldn't really smile after wound care - it takes so much out of me to watch him go through so much pain!

Today in wound care, the burn on his hand looked better. They put a slimmer dressing on it that wraps his fingers individually so he can have more movement. The white area on his right inner lower shin area looks worse and will probably need a skin graft there. His surgery is scheduled tenatively for Thursday.

Love,

Heidi

Airport Pickups

The Hagen's are expecting several visitors to be flying into Austin on Tuesday, and possibly some on Wednesday. They would like for people to pick-up these visitors at the airport for them.

If you are able to pick-up visitors from the airport on Tuesday or Wednesday, please let me know what time(s) you are available to do pick-ups and how many people total you can pick-up. Their destinations will likely vary.

Please send an e-mail to MealsForHagens@venabledomain.com to let me know the times.

David Venable

Mason walks!

Mason called it the walk of death!

On Saturday he walked from the bed to just outside the door. Today (Sunday) he walked from the bed, out the door and about 20 feet down the hall. Every step seemed to be painful, but he was determined. Please continue to pray for his healing.

Mason spirits continue to improve. Many friends and family have stopped by to spend time with him. Richard Venable brought a Nintendo Wii to play. This is cool becuase it is a gaming system that uses only one hand!

Also, Kristin was saying that the doctors say that the burns on his hand is looking good. The doctor does not think there will need to be surgery on his hand, which is really good for good healing of the hand.

Finally, the doctors tried a new type of treatment to help remove the dead skin. It was an enzyme that would eat away the dead skin. This is in lieu of cutting away the dead skin with a knife. I would not want to have either happen! But, the pain of the enzyme treatment was far worse than cutting. Mason said that it felt like his legs were on fire again.

Continue to pray.

Jeff

Leave a comment for the Hagens

If you would like to leave a comment for the Hagen family, please make a comment on this post.

Thank you for your prayers.

Funeral Update and Prayer Requests

The doctor came in this morning and looked at Mason's wounds. He said that the skin grafting can be delayed and so we can probably have the funeral on Wednesday, but we don't know for sure. We will not know for sure until we hear from the Army on Monday.

Mason's wound care was very, very painful for him this morning. It was so hard for me to see him in so much pain. He is so brave! I am so amazed at his incredible strength. I just held his hand and he squeezed it so hard. Leslie the PT had to scrape off a lot of skin off of his legs with a knife and that is really painful for him. It was good not to have visitors during this time in the early morning. It took about three hours! But his legs are healing well - they looked a lot better to me today. The doctor said that there is an outside chance that he will not need any skin grafts, but with burn wounds, you just have to wait and see because they could "pink up" in a day, which means they are healing.

So, prayer requests: please pray for Mason's pain control, that miraculously God would be with him and give him relief especially during wound care. Please also pray that his wounds would heal quickly and that if it is God's will, that he would not need any skin grafting. Skin grafts are very painful; often the donor site is more painful than the site where they put the skin, but they do heal pretty quickly.

Thank you all so much for your support. The grief comes in waves. It has been really good to see everyone. We have family coming in today; I can't wait to see them.

God is still good. Feel free to make any comments. I will be posting pictures soon.

Love,
Heidi