Family takes cybercare of soldier – Evan Mettie 

published 2.2.06


    As Dave and Denise Mettie keep a constant watch over their son Evan's recovery in a Maryland hospital, they know folks back in Selah want to hear about every twitch and eye flutter.

    They've found the perfect way to keep family, friends and anyone with an Internet connection informed of Evan's daily progress, without the exhausting repetition of telling the same story over a bad cell phone connection.

   

Evan Mettie's free website hosted by CaringBridge, a non-profit organization that offers families a free,  long-distance support system. Photo taken Wednesday, February 1, 2006. Brian Fitzgerald / Yakima Herald-Republic

The couple started a Web site through CaringBridge as soon as their son arrived at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center, where the 22-year-old soldier has remained in a coma since being transported there after a New Year's Day attack in Bayji, Iraq.

CaringBridge, a nonprofit organization, charges nothing to create or maintain a Web site. Donations keep the connection open at a time when families need their support systems firmly in place.

The sites are easy to operate and post to, and they are as public as the creator chooses to make them. Only individuals who know of a CaringBridge site can access one. They aren't picked up by search engines, like Google.

The Metties have decided to make Evan's site public. It's had more than 4,100 hits from visitors all over the country.

Daily postings poignantly communicate the Metties' struggles. Pictures of Evan in a letterman's jacket tell the story of happier days. Guestbook greetings remind the family they're not alone in their struggle:


January 31 — Today has been a little tougher on us. This morning Evan's temp began to rise and his congestion increased. They had to put him back on the ventilator.


The decline is even more heartbreaking coming just a week after Denise Mettie posted the excitement of a good day, when Evan's temperature was down and he opened his right eye.

Evan Mettie's sister, Breanne, is 16 and a junior at Selah High School. Although she visited her brother in Maryland, she had to return to resume her studies. She says the site helps her stay connected to her brother.

That's exactly what CaringBridge founder Sona Mehring had in mind in 1997 when she created the first site for a friend who was hospitalized with a difficult pregnancy, says spokesman John Wingate.

Nearly a decade later, the nonprofit has grown to connect families all over the world in a network of over 35,000 Web sites.

Over the years, people have created sites not only for medical treatment, but for the births of new babies and overseas adoptions.

"The sites are good for any situation you find yourself in where you don't have the energy to make all those phone calls telling the same story over and over again," Wingate says.

by Tracy Sawyer