Stricken deputy improving, family says

While still in critical condition, Ben Fisher, a Lincoln County Sheriff's Office deputy stricken with COVID-19, was improving as of late last week.

After speaking with staff at the Boise Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Idaho, Christina Fisher said that doctors had scaled back her husband’s dose of sedation medication. Ben Fisher was still on a ventilator as of Oct. 1 but nurses had been able to prone him to help distribute oxygen throughout his lungs.

Since Fisher went to the emergency room in Libby with low oxygen levels late last month, the Lincoln County community has rallied around him and his family. Roughly a dozen friends and family turned out for a Sept. 18 vigil at Troy Christian Fellowship. Pastor Eric Myers, who ministers the Troy-based church, said updates he had posted on Fisher’s hospitalization had garnered hundreds of responses from community members, many of whom Myers had not known previously. The support encouraged Myers to begin holding prayer gatherings at his church three times a week.

In addition to thoughts and prayers, residents have offered the Fishers financial support and donations. A rough count of contributions after the Sept. 18 vigil showed congregants had given $230 to the family. To help pay for a trip to Boise, Christina Fisher said a couple she knew from the Yaak had pitched in $1,000.

Money pouring in from other neighbors would help the family to make mortgage payments. Myers said his church was committed to keeping the Fishers fed. Some residents have offered to provide the family with firewood.

“Everyone is pitching in as a village should,” said Christina Fisher.

To show her support for the staff taking care of her husband, Christina Fisher has helped raise at least $2,000.

Thanks to Ben Fisher’s improving condition, Christina Fisher was able to visit him last weekend and early this week.