Safe in the Heart of a Miracle: More True Stories of Medical Miracles

by Gloria Teague

  “Noooo, it’s Super Duper Duper Boy! You left out a Duper, Dad!”

  Hailey lifted Logan and said, “Okay, Mr. SDDB, kindly hold that cape out so you won’t sit on it when I put you down. I don’t know how good a seamstress I am so those stitches might just pop right out if you tug on the cape.”

  Logan did as he was told and Tom watched with a happy smile. “That was pretty nice of Mommy to make you that really cool super hero outfit, wasn’t it, Lo?”

  The little boy smiled up at his mother and nodded enthusiastically. “It sure was. It was super duper duper nice of her.”

  Hailey shook her own head and chuckled. “Okay, enough already! Logan, will you please say the blessing, honey?”

  “Rub-a-dub-dub, thanks for the grub! Amen!”

  Hailey’s eyes grew larger with each syllable and Tom kept his eyes closed and head bowed. She saw the twinges playing at the corners of his lips.

  “Logan! Where did you hear that?”

  Logan quickly turned a startled look at his father. Tom opened his eyes and said, “Yes, Logan, where did you hear such a thing?”

  “But Daddy, you said …”

  “I said you should say grace the right way. Now, try it again, son.”

  Tears began to fill Logan’s eyes and Tom pushed his chair back to reach his son. “Oh, buddy, it’s okay. Mommy’s not really mad. Are you, Mommy? She knows Daddy was just playing a little joke on her, to make her laugh.”

  Logan sniffled and looked up at his mother from beneath eyelashes glistening with teardrops. “Is that right, Mommy? You know Daddy was just playing and told me to say that and you’re not mad at me?”

  Hailey went to the other side of Logan’s chair and wrapped her arms around the little boy. “Oh, sweetie, no, I’m not mad. I was just so surprised that Daddy taught you that and you remembered every single word without any help. That shows that Daddy worked with you for quite awhile to get it just right.”

  “Yes, he did, Mommy. We worked hard to get it right. Did you like it, Mommy? Do you think it’s funny?”

  “Oh, Logan, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard since my wedding day. Now, how about you say the real grace for Mommy, okay?”

  The adults went back to their seats and when Logan saw they were not angry and their heads were bowed once again, he gave it another try.

  “Thank you for the food we eat. Thank you for the world so sweet. Thank you for the birds that sing. Thank you God for everything. Amen.”

  When his parents both smiled at him, all was good in Logan’s world.

  “I’m awful hungry. What’s that stuff, Mommy? That’s not …” he gasped dramatically, “kryptonite, is it?”

  Tom laughed until the milk he’d just taken a sip of blew through pursed lips. “No. Logan, but it probably tastes just as bad.”

  Hailey rolled her eyes. “Oh, Lord, that boy’s going to be on stage. He’s just too dramatic for words. Logan, that’s broccoli and it tastes very good. I want you to try a bite.”

  Logan squinted his eyes closed, leaned forward, and opened his mouth, a little. Hailey grinned at his expression and put a small piece of the green vegetable in his mouth. Logan closed his lips, chewed slowly at first, then began to chew faster as he fought a gag reflex. Tom laughed out loud and picked up a napkin, holding it beneath his son’s mouth.

  “Okay, buddy, spit it in here. At least you tried, right Mom?”

  Hailey’s smile was rueful as she nodded. “Yes, honey, you tried. I guess broccoli’s just not your favorite food.”

  Logan spit the chewed green mess into the paper napkin, then grabbed another one to wipe his tongue vigorously.

  “Oh, that tastes bad, Mommy. I’d rather eat kryptonite!”

  The rest of the meal was uneventful. Logan prattled on about his favorite subject, super heroes. Whenever he took a breath, his parents discussed the large limb to be removed from the old beech tree next to the driveway. It had been a bone of contention between them for weeks and they argued about Tom not wanting to simply remove the limb.

  “I still think we should call someone out to cut that thing down.”

  “No, Tom, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to lose the whole tree. It’s just that one limb. I don’t see the big deal with just climbing up there and cutting it off. Besides, we can’t afford to get someone else to do it.”

  “I suppose the height is what bothers me. I mean, that tree has to be nearly 60 feet tall and that broken branch is near the top. I’m pretty sure I can reach it. At least, I think I can.”

  She ran her hand across her face. “Honey, will you at least try to do it, yourself?”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve already got the ladder out there. I told you I’d do it after dinner.”

  “Thanks, honey. I just don’t want it to fall on one of our cars or, worse yet, I don’t want it to fall on Logan at some point.”

  Logan made a half-hearted swipe with the dishcloth across the dining table, then turned to his mom with a big smile plastered on his face. “All done! Can I go watch the movie now?”

  Hailey reached over to playfully ruffle his soft brown curls. “Tell you what, champ, why don’t you go out and play for a bit? You watch way too much TV. Daddy’s going to help Mommy clean up the kitchen and then we’ll both come outside with you. Then later, after you have your bath and get on your pajamas, we’ll all sit down and finish the movie. How does that sound to you?”

  Logan jumped down from the table and saluted his mother. “That sounds just peachy, Super Duper Duper Mommy!” He ran out of the room, nearly colliding with the unsuspecting cat walking toward her own dinner.

  The couple laughed. “Well, I wonder where in the world he heard something like that. And what’s with the salute?”

  “Oh, who knows? I’m sure he saw it on a commercial or a movie. You’re right, Hailey, he watches too much television. I’m going to start making a more concentrated effort to get him outside and play in the sunshine. It’s healthier for his mind and body.”

  They worked together at the sink. Tom rinsed the dishes and Hailey loaded the dishwasher. They teased each other the way that married couples sometimes do and the house was filled with their shared love.

  It took about ten minutes to finish, and it was then that Hailey realized she hadn’t seen Logan in the backyard for a few minutes.

  “Where’d Logan go? Tom, have you seen him?”

  “Not in awhile, but he hasn’t gone anywhere. The yard’s fenced and the gate’s locked. He can’t get out of the yard. I’m going to go out there and climb that ladder that’s standing next to the tree and see if I …”

  Hailey ran for the door, calling out as she did.

  “Logan? Logan, where are you?” She hit the storm door with enough force to slam it against the side of the house.

  As if sounding from a long distance, they both heard, “Mommy! I’m right here!”

  She stopped just long enough to stare into her husband’s eyes. “Oh, God, no!” They both began to run to the side of the house. Instinctively they both looked toward the beech tree.

  “Hey, Daddy, look at me! I’m way up high! Can you see me, Mommy? I’m all the way up in the clouds!”

  There, near the top of the tree, stood a small boy in a super hero costume. The branch on which he stood balancing was bending even under his light weight; the wind caused it to sway due to its small diameter.

  Hailey stifled a scream as she reached her arms toward her son and saw him fall. The cape unfurled in the wake of his furious descent. His freefall seemed at once in slow motion, and then it hurled fast forward. Though she was transfixed, Tom’s frightened yell uprooted her and they both ran toward their son.

  Logan’s small body snapped limbs as he fell. His cries of horror stopped after he broke the third branch with his weight. Hailey’s heart felt as if it stopped and a fist was crammed into her abdomen when she saw her son’s forehead slam against the broken branch that had caused all the trouble. When she heard, as w
ell as saw, his head snap back on his neck, it felt as if someone had shoved a fist down her throat. Next to her, she heard Tom whisper, “Oh please, God, no.”

  Small boys hitting the ground from fifty feet up make no more than a muffled thudding sound when they hit the ground. The broken branches rained down upon Logan’s still form and pelted the heads of his parents who knelt beside him.

  “Tom, call for help! And tell them to hurry!” Her voice rose to near a scream on the last word.

  The sirens brought neighbors from their homes to see what had happened. They stood in a large circle around the young family surrounded by broken limbs and crumpled leaves.

  The paramedics gently, so gently, slid a brace around Logan’s slender neck, then put a flat backboard against the child’s back and turned him over with agonizing slowness. Hailey felt like she would pummel them if they didn’t move faster, faster, faster. Then they scarcely took time to check his vitals before running with their small charge.

  Tom and Hailey had tried to climb in the back with their son, but the paramedic working on Logan shook his head. “Please, Mr. and Mrs. Miller, I know you want to go with him but since I have to work fast and it’s so cramped in here, would you please just meet us at Mercy West?” Without waiting for a response he yelled through the small window separating him from the driver. “Let’s go, Brian. We need to get this little boy to the hospital STAT!”

  * * *

  A resident was waiting for Tom and Hailey when they arrived at the hospital. He kindly steered them to a private room.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Miller, my name is Dr. Stokes and my only function at this moment is to speak to you about your son. He’s being examined by Dr. Felicia Rhodes, the best trauma surgeon in the city.”

  “May we see him? How is he? Is he awake? Will he …”

  “Mrs. Miller, while I can’t say that I understand how you feel, I can appreciate your concern. As I have yet to see Logan, and the attending has had little time to do much more than a cursory exam, I have precious little to tell you. Here’s what I know at this moment: Logan is still unconscious. He had spontaneous respiration when he arrived, but after that he had to be intubated and placed on a ventilator.”

  Tom dropped into a chair and put his head in his hands. Hailey remained standing, though she was trembling so hard it would seem she would collapse at any second.

  “I know this all sounds scary because it is scary. I’m afraid that I now have to join Dr. Rhodes. As soon as we have any news, one of us will come out to speak to you. I know it’s easier said than done, but please be patient with us. We’ll work as fast as we can, but we don’t want to miss something important to Logan’s care.”

  With that he was gone and Hailey finally allowed herself to fall into the seat next to Tom. There they sat, holding hands, crying, praying, and watched the hands crawl around the face of the clock on the wall.

  Dr. Rhodes was an impressive figure. She was tall and slim with a commanding countenance that seemed to gentle when she offered a smile. It was just a small smile but the Millers would cling to anything that appeared to be a positive sign. She leaned toward them, as if to make sure she had their full attention, something she’d had the moment she opened the door.

  Hailey took the doctor’s hand and looked into her eyes. “Is Logan alive?”

  “Yes, he’s alive. He even woke up in the exam room, briefly. As you were told, he’s on a machine that breathes for him since he can’t do it on his own.”

  Tom’s shoulders drooped.

  “I’ll warn you ahead of time that this is critical. I’m not going to sugarcoat it because I want you to completely understand what I’m saying. I would think that seeing your son hit so many branches as he fell caused your heart to tighten. But the very thing that should’ve killed him may be the very thing that kept him alive. From what I understand, he must have been fifty feet or more off the ground.”

  Tom nodded in agreement but didn’t utter a sound.

  “If there had been nothing to slow down his momentum, something like those branches, if he’d fallen directly from that height, I doubt we’d even be having a conversation. In all likelihood, he would have been a DOA and you would have signed forms before someone took him to the morgue.”

  Hailey gasped as tears dripped onto her lap.

  “I hit you with that scenario so you can see how it could have gone. Maybe by realizing he could have died, you’ll understand how lucky your child is and you can hang onto that because his condition is still grave. In fact, he’s a very, very sick little boy.”

  The doctor reached up to pull the surgical cap from her head, then massaged the muscles of her right shoulder.

  “Logan had an atlanto-occipital dislocation, or an internal decapitation.”

  The parents were frozen, pinned to their chairs by terror.

  “An orthopedic decapitation is an extremely rare condition where the skull actually separates from the spinal column. The reason I say Logan is lucky is that this is nearly always fatal, since it involves nerve damage or severance of the spinal cord. It had to be a perfect storm of injuries for Logan to survive such a horrific injury.”

  Tom put his arm around his wife and cleared his throat. “Is Logan going to be okay? Will he have, I mean, will he be …”

  “Mr. Miller, I can’t give you an honest answer about whether or not Logan will ever again be the same little boy who climbed into that tree today. I can’t even promise you that he will live. Right now, he’s in intensive care with a Halo brace around his skull just to hold his head immobile. We’re trying to keep him stable and see how much swelling there will be. You can visit him for a few minutes, but know that he’s non-responsive now because we have sedated him heavily. The plan is to take him into surgery, hopefully tomorrow, to affix however many plates and screws it takes to stabilize his head. But I’m not making a move until I see how he progresses through the night. Folks, try to prepare yourselves. If your son survives, he’s in for the fight of his life. He will have months of rehab ahead of him with no guarantee that he’ll ever walk, talk or live what we consider a ‘normal’ life again. I truly wish I had better news for you. Do you have any questions?”

  The heartbroken mother stared at the floor as she answered. “I don’t think that we’d even know what questions to ask. Just please promise me you’ll do all that you can and I promise you that we’ll do whatever Logan needs.”

  The little caped crusader went into surgery the next afternoon to reattach his skull to his spinal cord. Later, when Dr. Rhodes showed the Millers the post-op x-rays; they were amazed at how many screws their child had inside his small body to hold him together.

  * * *

  The first six months showed a remarkable amount of improvement, with few setbacks. Youth was on Logan’s side, helping him to physically heal quicker. With each week that passed, he gained more strength and his rehabilitation became more intense. There were times Logan became frustrated when he tried to speak—or mad when the washers were slid tighter on the halo screws.

  The staff helped Logan celebrate his fifth birthday, decorating his room with balloons, cards, and dozens of gifts. His mother gave him the present which created his largest smile. He ran his hands over the smooth lines of the red cape attached to the blue pullover shirt.

  Dr. Rhodes walked in with her own gift just as Logan was admiring his new hero clothes.

  “Look, Dr. R … R … Rho! Mommy made me a new costume.”

  “Wow, will you look at that? I think that’s probably just the coolest cape I’ve ever seen. But Logan, will you promise me to never climb anything else like a tree again? You’re going to be good as new in a few more months, but I want you to always be careful, and take it easy.”

  Logan lifted an arm and saluted her. “Bet on it, Doc! Super Duper Duper Boy is grounded!”

  Pin-up Model

  The sun was shining brightly in Karensa Patton’s world. Officially, a high school senior in the fall, she was going to enjoy
this summer, her last summer as a carefree “kid”. Next summer, she’d be busy working to help pay for the books she’d need to become a student at Rice University. It would be a long drive from her home in northeastern Oklahoma to Houston and she would miss her family, but in her secret heart of hearts, she was thrilled at the prospect of being away from home and becoming independent.

  She and her mother had set up this tour of the Houston campus. Karensa’s excitement grew with each step as they walked. Her mother noticed the young men turning to take a second look at her tall, willowy daughter. Even though it tugged at her, she understood why they would notice the beautiful face, waist-length blond hair and large green eyes. She only hoped that Karensa would fixate more on subjects other than the anatomy of the male species.

  “What are you laughing about, Mom?”

  “I was just hoping you remember to study something other than biology when you get here.”

  “Oh, Mom, that’s crazy! I’m going to Rice to shape my future—make something of my life. I worked hard all of my life to get that scholarship. I’m sure not going to mess that up when I finally get here. But that’s not to say I won’t date a boy, or two, or three …” She laughed out loud at her mother’s pretended look of shock.

  “I’m now wondering if I can fit another bed in your dorm room so I can keep an eye on you.”

  Karensa put her arm around her mother and kissed her cheek. “Gosh, I’m going to miss you, Mom. I’ll miss Dad, too, of course. I don’t know how I’m going to get through life without my church youth group. We’ve grown up together, and it’s like leaving other family members behind.”

  “You’ll just have to find a new church here in Houston, honey. Since you’ll be in the ‘museum district’, you can probably find a beautiful church to attend. I know you don’t care about beauty—that it’s the congregation that matters—but it would be nice to go to church in an architectural masterpiece. I’ll just pray that you find the right church home, away from home.”

  A small slip of a girl walked up to them, her posture confident and proud. When she reached them she shook the mother’s hand and then stood on tip-toes to hug Karensa. The difference in their height was amusing.