A Body that is Brain Dead Still Reflexes
The news picture of the car crash was stunning (refer: http://wp.me/p89n5f-9X). Where the car landed on its side suggested it rolled many times after being struck at the intersection. It showed the roof cut where the first responders extricated the boys. The oldest victim, the driver, remained in a coma after brain surgery; the hospital released his brother several days later.
The interminable waiting after the operation had family, friends and girlfriend suspended in an air-less vacuum. Barely daring to breathe they prayed for life to return to a broken boy.
Then began small stirrings–facial quivers, the trembling of a muscle–the hoped for answer to prayer? But a body that is brain-dead still reflexes. More days passed before movement increased. Like waking up from a deep sleep an arm and a leg brushed slightly over the bed sheets. Eyes fluttered but nothing more.
The return of movement signaled to the medical professional’s trouble with one leg. A week and a half after the brain surgery they re-deployed the boy to the operating room for pelvic repair, and then, more waiting.
Unusual Activity
We didn’t know what to think. After one hospital visit my daughter told us her friend had shared news of unusual activity. Although medicated her boyfriend had toyed with the rings on her fingers, removing them and placing them on the bed linens. In an intimate and familiar gesture he twirled her stomach ring, something he had done when they cuddled–instinctive maybe, but something he remembered and could express. This didn’t seem like brain death but his injuries remained unknown.
The unusual activity wasn’t limited to the boy’s progress. Newly divorced and with feelings raw and further eviscerated by the accident his parents vied for control on who was best suited to tend to their son’s needs. With stress already high the accident tipped the scale. Hospital security showed up for one such heated exchange.
But haggling over the boy as a divorce asset blinded the warring parents to the subtlety evolving before their eyes. An invisible miracle emerging: a chance to unite and join forces on something they could agree on–their son’s health and restoration.
Ego Clouds Waiting Miracles
The continued miracle required a cohesive community of caregivers, loving care from as many as were willing and able being a vital ingredient. No single person could administer to the boy and give him everything needed.
Devastated at the turn of events between the parents the boy’s girlfriend became marginalized. Her love for the boy had no authority, no legal voice in his care. Had they been married it would have been otherwise, but they were still students. As he lay incapacitated in a hospital bed all decisions rested with the conflicted parents.
Ego ascendency–where we kick another down to crawl up the ladder of life because we fear limited resources: of not having enough, of not getting our fair share, of not getting our piece of the pie: of money, food, water, shelter, love, affection, acceptance, respect, etcetera…the battle for control distracts. Perhaps miracles that are present and evolving stay clouded behind our egos and obscured by faulty perceptions. Ego veils the truth: there is enough. God’s supply is sufficient. But humankind must refrain from greed and distribute the world’s resources in a fair way so that supplanting one for another becomes void.
The mother, the father, the girlfriend, extended family, friends, doctors, nurses, and other caregivers–each had a role to fill, a place to inhabit in the care for the injured boy.
And perhaps that is the beginning for invisible miracles. When we recognize each other as a necessary part of a greater whole and when we support another in fulfilling that unique role, then maybe the world takes one step closer to being healed.
To be continued (refer next post).
Where have you waited for an invisible miracle in your life?