A few weeks ago, I posted a sad note about my friend, “G”, who, at the age of 41, had a heart attack, suffered subsequent “severe brain damage” and was on life support.
At that time, lots of my dear readers/friends out there sent notes of hope and prayers from all over the world. One friend even went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral and lit candles for G. Another friend added G to her child’s private school’s morning prayers. Another friend posted G’s story on her blog to ask for more prayers from more people. And another friend of a friend was praying for G all the way over in Israel. Even more friends added G to their church prayers, their prayer chains, and even their family dinner prayer-time. So many of you were praying for G! Well, I wanted to give you an update.
The family had planned to remove G from the respirator after Christmas, thus giving friends and family time to come to the hospital to say goodbye to her. She was also suffering from pneumonia and a staph infection by that time.
Well, they removed her from the respirator… and she started breathing on her own. Around this time, her brother thought he saw a spark in there somewhere, even though she was comatose. He sent photos of her and, while it did appear she might be smiling, I kept thinking of that old news footage of Terry Schiavo, where it looked like she was following a balloon with her eyes and smiling but they later determined during her autopsy that she was blind. G’s sister, who has custody of G’s children now, was being, in my opinion, more realistic. It just didn’t look like G was in there anymore. On the Glasgow Coma Scale, she’d rated about a 7 or 8 (severe coma) and she didn’t appear to be making any progress. No eye contact, not able to follow any directions (not even to blink)… nothing. One neurologist gave the family no hope while another neurologist, who I suspected had some kind of sadistic medical study planned for G, said she might be walking within a year… while at the same time saying that they could only detect some mild activity in part of her lower cortex. I’m not a doctor and the details were coming from emails from her sister so I may have some of this a bit mixed up. But, basically, she was in a deep coma, has suffered severe brain damage, and her family was considering moving her to another hospital that offers “comfort care” where they would remove her feeding tube. While she didn’t leave anything in writing, everybody knows that somebody who had been so very alive and in love with life would not want to live in a vegetative state like that for years and years.
And I have never been so absolutely and utterly shocked in my life as I was last week when I received an email from G’s sister that said, “G is talking!”
Yes, you read that right. It’s a miracle! G woke up and started talking! She has no short-term memory and spotty long-term memory but she knows friends and family and can speak and, as her sister said, “It IS her in there.” Thank God! The good news is G was able to tell those around her that she loves them. The bad news is that, late last week, she took a turn for the worse and is now very ill with pneumonia and sepsis. Her heart rate has soared and she’s on tons of antibiotics. They’re not sure if she’s going to make it or not.
But, she IS in there and she can speak and, oh God, I’m just so happy that she is able to speak for herself now and that she can talk to her children!
Anyway, I wanted to share this incredible miracle with you today. I’m positive that all your prayers and everybody else’s prayers for G have everything to do with this! PRAYER REALLY DOES WORK!
Richard and I both have living wills that specify if we are in a vegetative state to pull the plug. After watching G’s incredible miracle, I told Richard, “Okay, don’t pull the plug right away. Gimme two months. Just two months! If I don’t come around by then, you can pull the plug.”
UPDATE: As of Tuesday afternoon, I received word that G is recovering from her infections! Her fever is down and she’s doing MUCH better! Hallelujah!!!
Happy Hugs to everybody!
Angela
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