Joey is more or less the same: still unconscious, heavily sedated, on a respirator, in critical condition. We were able to talk briefly with one of his doctors. They’ve determined that it is not an infection. The closest they can get at a diagnosis is to say that it is definitely a toxin of some kind that he was exposed to or somehow ingested. But they don’t know what it could be, or how it got into his system. They’ve contacted other hospitals and even the CDC, but haven’t gotten any helpful information about any other possibly-related cases elsewhere. The tests have been inconclusive. For several days he has essentially been alternating between slight upward trends and slight downward trends. His doc said that for the past six hours it’s been downward. His body is quite swollen, but that’s not unusual for someone who’s been on a drip and motionless for several days. His skin color is not good at all. It’s because this toxin, whatever it is, is still going after his liver. And it’s the strain on his liver that has caused his lung problems, and the onset of pneumonia.

There’s nothing that can be done, at the moment, except to support his body as much as they can and hope that his system can purify itself. The things in his favor: he’s young, his organs and system were pretty healthy beforehand, and the illness was caught early (he was admitted seven days ago). The bad things: overall it seems like a very slow but steady decline, and they don’t know what’s causing it and therefore can’t initiate focused treatment.