A Mormon missionary who nearly died while preaching the scriptures in Argentina revealed how her church leaders simply told her they would “say a prayer” for her as she bled profusely and pleaded with them for medical help.
Keylee Peterson, now 24, from Ogden, Utah, explained that she had been raised as a ‘devout Mormon’ all her life and was delighted when she was sent to South America to begin her missionary work at age 19.
But when the then-teenager developed a strange lump on her back, which left her in so much pain she could barely walk, the people in charge of the trip continually ignored her pleas.
She said she fought to see a doctor for weeks and when she did, she was given ‘mystery pills that were driving her crazy’, and even after blood started coming out of her mouth and nose, her ailments still went untreated.
A Mormon missionary who nearly died while preaching church scriptures in Argentina has revealed how leaders simply told her they would “say a prayer” for her as she bled profusely.
Keylee Peterson, now 24, from Utah, had been raised as a “devout Mormon” her entire life and was delighted when she was sent to South America to begin her missionary work at age 19.
But when the then-teenager developed a lump on her back, leaving her in so much pain she could barely walk, the people in charge continually ignored her pleas for help.
She said she fought to see a doctor for weeks and even after blood started coming out of her mouth and nose, her ailments still went untreated. she has seen during the trip
She opened up about her harrowing journey during a recent appearance on the Cults to Consciousness podcast.
Keylee told host Shelise Ann Sola that she spent seven months living in Córdoba, Argentina, in 2018 while trying to convince locals to join the church.
But he admitted that looking back, it felt like they were taking advantage of those who just “needed someone to talk to.”
She recalled being forced to wake up at 6:30 in the morning to study the scriptures and spending hours and hours going door to door in the blazing sun; she sometimes only returned to her hotel at 10 at night.
Not only did he not get paid for his work, but he said his parents actually had to shell out a fee of $450 per month during the mission.
She also claimed that they only gave her $50 a month for food, which often left her without enough money to eat.
“You could only buy the bare minimum with what they gave you,” Keylee said, adding that going days without food was considered normal.
The 23-year-old explained that at one point during the trip, she developed a severe stomach virus that left her vomiting for days.
Keylee (left) opened up about her harrowing journey during a recent appearance on the Cults to Consciousness podcast hosted by Shelise Ann Sola (right)
During his appearance, he explained that he spent seven months living in Córdoba, Argentina, in 2018, while trying to convince the locals to join the church.
Keylee (seen on the ride) recalled spending hours in the sun and claimed she was only given $50 a month for food, often leaving her without enough money to eat.
At one point on the trip, he developed a stomach virus and had to go to the doctor. He was given an injection in his back and soon a ‘bump’ grew where the injection site was.
‘I was hallucinating [lack of food], It was horrible. I went to the hospital and they gave me an injection in my back and they said that would fix it, that I would stop throwing up,’ he revealed.
“But then after that, I got a lump on my back where the injection site was. I started having back pain and it got progressively worse. It was killing me.
Keylee said she eventually went to see another doctor, who told her she had developed a “little fluid cyst” and would be “fine” after taking some anti-inflammatories.
She followed his advice, but it kept getting worse, and the pain not only intensified, but soon began to spread to other parts of her body.
“I felt very stiff all the time,” she explained. “It was radiating to my legs, if I walked for a long time I wanted to sit down and cry because it was the worst pain I’ve ever felt before.”
“I contacted my mission president’s wife because we’re supposed to call if we have medical needs, and she told me to just take ibuprofen.”
Keylee said she knew “something was seriously wrong” and went to see another doctor, but this time, he gave her a large amount of pills that he described as “muscle relaxants.”
She revealed: “He opened the cabinet, grabbed this scoop of samples and put them on the table and said, ‘Here are the muscle relaxants.’
‘He just gave me all these drugs. She then proceeded to tell me to put lemon on my butt.
‘He said cut a lemon in half and put it on my butt and that would stop my back pain. He was so frustrated.
As expected, the strange advice from the medical professional “didn’t work” and the medication simply made her feel “out of it.”
He also tried “shock therapy” on the recommendation of a physical therapist and visited a chiropractor who tried to break his back, but nothing eased the pain.
Then things took a drastic turn when Keylee woke up suddenly in the middle of the night due to blood coming out of her nose and mouth.
Keylee (seen on the ride) said the lump began to cause her severe agony, but when she approached the mission president’s wife for help, she was told to just take ibuprofen.
Then things took a drastic turn when Keylee woke up suddenly in the middle of the night due to blood coming out of her nose and mouth.
Terrified, she called the mission president, who replied, ‘We can say a prayer.’ Ella Keylee said that she knew ‘prayers weren’t going to be enough’ at that point and she went to the hospital.
‘Around two in the morning, I woke up with a bloody nose. I had bloody noses before, so I was like, “Oh, okay.” But then she went on and all of a sudden it came out of my mouth too,” she recalled.
It’s everywhere, there’s a lot of blood. It was like coming out of my nose and mouth. She didn’t stop.
Terrified, she woke up her roommate, who called the mission president and told him what was happening. But to her dismay, he replied, ‘We can say a prayer.’
The former Mormon said she knew “prayers weren’t going to be enough” at the time, so she headed to the hospital.
He soon discovered that he had a herniated disc in his back and flew home. Fortunately, she seems to have made a full recovery, and she and her parents eventually left the church. she has recently seen
Unfortunately, she was told there were ‘no doctors’ available because it was a holiday weekend, so they ‘stuffed her nose with gauze’ and ordered her to ‘eat sugary things’ until Tuesday.
After days of ‘horrible’ bleeding and weeks of endless pain, she finally had an X-ray the following week and found she had a herniated disc.
They told him that he would need more tests, but that he would have to travel four hours to the capital to do so.
Although the mission president apologized to her because he “didn’t realize she was in so much pain,” he was still in no rush to get her the help she so desperately needed.
Keylee said she was told she could only get a ride to the capital when they were scheduled to go there for a mission “a couple of weeks” later.
‘They didn’t care enough, it was like four hours from the capital. My health was not worth the four hour bus ride,” she said.
After more than a month of agony, Keylee was finally sent home after being told she would need back surgery.
Fortunately, it appears that she made a full recovery, and she and her parents eventually left the church.
