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SALT LAKE CITY — Add an infection to the list of complications for the senior Mormon missionary hurt worst in the March 22 Brussels airport bombing.
Elder Richard Norby, 66, of Lehi, Utah, remains in the intensive care unit of a Belgian hospital 17 days after two bombs detonated near him in the airport's international departure hall as he stood next to three young missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The first blast broke Norby's left fibula and left heel and peppered him with shrapnel. He also suffered second-degree burns to his face, ears, sides of his head, leg and the backs of his hands.
Now the Norby family says he has an infection.
"The progress is slower than we had anticipated," the family said in a news release issued Friday morning by the church. "We are very grateful for the thoughts and prayers that continue to come on his behalf," the family added. "We are looking forward to having him back in the United States for continued care and recovery as soon as possible."
Elder Norby's wife, Sister Pam Norby, has said doctors found shrapnel wounds up to 2 inches deep on Elder Norby's neck, back, hip and legs. They told her it was a blessing he wasn't turned toward the explosions because the metal would have sheared vital organs.
Belgian doctors placed Norby in a medically induced coma for four days after the attack to allow his body to heal. Generally a medically induced coma is designed to protect the brain from swelling, but neither the family nor the church has said whether Norby experienced brain swelling.
However, his son Jason Norby has described symptoms of head trauma.
"Elder Norby’s ability to communicate has progressed from head turns to single words and, most recently, short sentences," Jason Norby said in a statement released March 31. "He is becoming more aware of his surroundings with each passing day. His sense of humor is also emerging. In the last day, he has expressed his love and thanks for his doctors and nurses, the missionaries who were with him at the airport the day of the attack and his wife and family."
Norby drove the local zone leaders, Elder Mason Wells, 19, of Sandy, Utah, and Elder Joseph Dresden Empey, 20, of Santa Clara, Utah, to a Brussels train station early on the morning of March 22 to pick up a sister missionary and take her to the airport.
Sister Fanny Clain, 20, of Reunion Island, France, was scheduled to catch a 10 a.m. flight to Atlanta on her way to the church's Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.
Clain said the four missionaries were waiting in line to pick up her tickets at the Delta counter when the bomb exploded.
Norby is well over 6 feet tall, and a Belgian LDS source told the Deseret News that church members in the area believe from what the missionaries have told them that Norby took the brunt of the blast and partially shielded Clain.
Clain's perspective is different, that he was standing to her side, not in front of her.
Either way, all four missionaries suffered serious wounds.
The initial blast drove the iPad from Wells' hand, blew his watch off his left wrist and the shoe off his left foot. A large piece of shrapnel ruptured his left Achilles tendon, broke his left heel and tore off a large patch of skin near those wounds. He also suffered second-degree burns to his face and hand.
The explosion knocked out Empey, who received second-degree burns to his hands and face. He still has a large chunk of shredded metal lodged on top of his left foot.
Wells and Empey returned to the United States on air ambulance flights.
Wells flew to Utah on March 28 and is being treated at University Hospital in Salt Lake City.
Empey returned March 29. After a week's stay at University Hospital, he returned to his family's home on Wednesday.
Both men have been released from missionary service.
Clain remains in an Antwerp hospital. Her shrapnel wounds caused an infection in her blood, so doctors put her on an antibiotic treatment she said would last at least 10 days. She is determined to complete her mission. She had been serving in the France Paris Mission since November, awaiting a visa to the United States, where she is scheduled to serve in Ohio.
