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1% Chance –
A Story of Hope and MIRACLES
By Rich and Bobbi Paine
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This story is about a young man of 16. A young man that had the sense of humor of a comedian, was full of one-liners and loved WWII history. A young man that was an honor student, a son, a brother and had the dream of one day becoming a pilot.
A Young Man Full of Life...
This young man’s name is Geoffrey. Geoff lived a rich, full life with a large brain tumor pressing against his brain stem. He was under the care of a neurologist for a neurological “tic” who never performed an MRI. When a second opinion physician ordered “baseline” tests, the tumor was diagnosed and what we once knew as a “normal” life was replaced with a rollercoaster ride of all rides.
How does a family learn to pick up the pieces when a loved one suffers the traumatic events associated with a brain tumor and brain stem strokes due to complications? How does a family watch as the son and brother they knew lie weeks on end in the ICU and then a nursing home? Our child was lying in a persistent vegetative state not able to move any extremity, being fed with a G-tube and breathing with a trachea.
The prognosis was bleak at best. Geoff was given a 1% chance of ever being more than a vegetable and we, as parents, were encouraged to pull his trachea, place him on a DNR and let nature take its course. On numerous occasions, we discussed his funeral arrangements and his last human request of being an organ donor.
Give Him a Year...
I knew Geoffrey would not want to live as a vegetable, I knew it would devastate him to know that caregivers were feeding, cleaning and taking care of his every need. As a family, we agreed to give Geoffrey the calendar year of 2002 to see his progress before taking the previous medical advice. Daily we went by his bedside, held his hand, washed his face, combed his hair, put cologne on him and talked to him as if he were living with us through our daily activities like normal. We laughed, we joked, we played board games and we lived what was our new “normal” life. Our life that consisted of hospitals, nursing homes, emergency rooms, and ambulance rides. We crawled onto his hospital bed beside him for the closeness we knew he always cherished. And….we cried.
It is an understatement to say tears fell. I would go days on end crying only to regain my composure to walk into his hospital room. There were days I could not go and my husband and our daughter would drop in and always tell him I loved him. Each night before our daughter went to sleep, she prayed that God would send angels to surround Geoffrey. We mourned his loss. We ached for his smile, his laughter, and his voice.
One of the hardest things in addition to seeing our son lying lifeless is to see my husband on bended knee hovering over the hospital bed of his only son holding him in his arms. No words were ever exchanged, just silent tears. How does a family survive?
New Hope and a New Future...
Then one day, it all changed. Geoffrey started wiggling his toes. One encouragement led to another and months turned into a year with Geoffrey moving his extremities, becoming mentally aware, recovering his memory and responding successfully to rehabilitation.
Today our son is 18, soon to be 19. Even though he uses a wheelchair, he is starting to get his vocalization back, and he has returned to High School this fall. His goal is to graduate with the Class of 2004! He is mentally capable of continuing his education and has plans of college on the horizon. He has his sense of humor, he smiles, and he eats everything by mouth with the successful removal of the G-tube months ago. He no longer has the trachea and is as strong as ever.
Families survive by never giving up hope. They survive by allowing each person to deal with the set of circumstances in their own way. They survive by trusting in the human spirit they know exists in us all. And they survive in knowing Miracles CAN and DO happen.
The best thing is that Geoffrey is very much alive, he has beaten the odds. One huge MIRACLE has the name of Geoffrey. No matter what prognosis may come your way NEVER give up! Geoff is living proof.
This material is provided by:
Lash & Associates Publishing Training Inc.
708 Young Forest Drive, Wake Forest NC 27587
Tel: (919) 562-0015 www.lapublishing.com
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