The Lovely Knowing: All Medicine Doesn't Come in a Bottle

“This is just temporary!” These are the specific words that held me together and gave me the ability to believe in a creative miracle for my youngest son. He had been the victim of a gunshot wound to his head. He now lay in a coma, after a long and difficult six hour operation on his brain. Half of his skull, the bullet, three large hematomas and skull fragments were all surgically removed. He was hanging in the balance between life and death. He was on life support, but diagnosed as clinically dead with out life support and diagnosed brain dead as well. The neurosurgeon had not given us any hope. This was a most arduous thing to hear, much less to embrace as our reality.

I knew in my spirit that I must make a decision, not only to believe in a more earnest desired and expected outcome, but to firmly hold to that expectation in my heart. As I walked into the cubicle in which my son was resting, I was shocked and taken back at his condition. I was not prepared for what I was witnessing. Although half of his skull was missing, one could not tell for the immense swelling that had morphed his head to three times its normal size. Sixty-eight staples held his shattered skull together, while tubes and shunts protruded from his broken cranium. There was dry blood in his ear and his left eye was swollen the size of a golf ball. He appeared lifeless.

I felt my emotions rise, my heart felt as though it were wrenched with horrific pain and I had to choose not to give in to my emotions and completely fall apart. In that moment, I asked for Divine Guidance and the words that I desperately needed to see beyond this tragedy. I asked for a token of hope to see an expected end of joy and miraculous recovery. “This is temporary!” Those were the words that arose from my inner most being and boldly flowed from my lips. To even speak them increased my faith and elevated my spirits.

In the six long agonizing days and nights that my son lay in a coma, his condition did not improve. In fact, there were a few times that his condition worsened and became potentially less hopeful as far as medical evidence provided. It is true that there were moments of anguish, tears and utter desperation, but to hold on to hope, regardless of the physical evidence before us only moved my faith in a more accelerated rate. I refused to believe that my son would not live and recover to his fullest potential. Hope had become the hand of the friend that I held on to firmly and I refused to let go.

Seven days from the day my son had received an extensive traumatic injury to his head, the miracle that my family and I had believed for came to pass. My son woke up from his coma and moved toward rehabilitation. My son, who was given no hope of living a normal life upon survival and despite complete paralysis to the entire right side of his body is now enjoying a vibrant life as a husband and father to four beautiful sons. He does all the activities that the physician said that he would never be able to do. As a matter of fact, the parts of his brain that control specific abilities were destroyed or removed and in spite of that, still he is able to carry out these abilities. Reading, writing, verbal cognition and communication are among them. With determination and hard work, he has recovered his life and is a testimony of miracles coming to pass. He is proof of the miracle of resilience of the human spirit and Divine intervention.

I am most grateful for the skill and wisdom of the medical staff, as well as the great leaps of applications in conventional medicine. They definitely made a magnanimous difference to my son’s quality of health. They were imperative to sustain him to the state of being in which he could recover. I am also humbly and joyfully grateful for the empowerment of choosing to believe, hold on to hope and envision a thriving future for ourselves and the ones we love. It is true; most medicine does come in a bottle. There is however, some medicine that can only come through love, faith and hope. It comes from our Source, from our life force within. We can all benefit from this wonderful medicine daily and administer as often as needed. All medicine does not come in a bottle. My son is proof of the power of Love.

*As a footnote, with brain injuries, the first five years of rehabilitation are crucial. Though his recovery was quicker than doctors ever expected, it was also one that took a lot of perseverance, tears and sheer determination. It has been eight years and two brain operations later. He still endures pain and has some limitations, but he remains my hero and offers hope to anyone who knows his story. My hope is that his story will offer those who read this the same token of hope. I believe with God, with Love all things are possible.