Russ Peters, stricken local pastor while in Guatemala, transported to hospital in Rochester

Photo courtesy of Mike Zaidel: Russ Peters made it back to Rochester on Wednesday after spending about a month at a hospital in Guatemala. Peters is shown leaving Centro Medico Hospital in Guatemala City.

SHELBY – Russ Peters made it back to Rochester on Wednesday, a month after being stricken with serious health issues while on a humanitarian mission trip to Guatemala.

Peters, the pastor of Alabama Full Gospel Church on Route 63 in Shelby, is at a Rochester hospital and being treated for abdominal abscesses. His wife Jodi said he may need surgery for those abscesses. They are treating him for sepsis and C. diff while awaiting additional testing results to confirm if he has those conditions.

Peters flew out of Guatemala City at about midnight Wednesday with friends from Guatemala and Mike Zaidel, Alabama Full Gospel church coordinator and head elder.

When he arrived in Rochester around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, he was taken by ambulance to a Rochester hospital where a team of infectious disease doctors and surgeons who specialize in pancreatic diseases were waiting, Mrs. Peters wrote on a GoFundMe page for her husband.

“Russell is completely off the oxygen!” she wrote. “His stomach is 2-3X the size and he’s very uncomfortable. There are multiple abdominal abscesses noted and much edema with it.”

She thanked doctors in Guatemala for saving his life, and Zaidel for traveling to Guatemala and ensuring his safe return close to home.

Zaidel said Peters traveled well and is in good spirits, but has a long road ahead of him in his recovery.

Mrs. Peters thanked people for their prayers and those who contributed to the GoFundMe. Nearly $65,000 has been raised towards a $90,000 goal.

Peters went to Guatemala on Nov. 11 to visit churches Alabama Full Gospel has partnered with for about 40 years, starting when Russ’s dad Terry was the pastor of the local church in Shelby.

One of the long-time church leaders in Guatemala recently passed away and Russ went to see that church and others in a mountainous region. It was his first trip there since the Covid pandemic. He used to go every 3-4 years, Zaidel said.

Peters became gravely ill when he couldn’t hold down food or his diabetic medicines and his blood sugar rose to 500. He has gall stones which caused vomiting and severe pain, leading to pancreatitis, his wife said.

Her husband was so stricken he couldn’t walk or move on his own. He was in San Cristobal, about four hours from proper medical care. Once moved to a hospital in Guatemala City, he received IV fluids, antibiotics, pain medicines and insulin.