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He was a good-looking young man, a good athlete, until his sixteenth birthday. I was taking a shower and getting ready to go to work. Then my oldest son came running into the bathroom, he told me with much excitement in his voice, "Dad, there’s something wrong with my little brother!" {He slept in the same room as his brother}
"Come quick dad." Without any clothes on I ran to the bedroom, I found my son unconscious and breathing hard, I had no idea what was wrong with him, Maybe he was having a seizure, or was dying. I had no idea. I slapped him in the face trying to revive him, he just wouldn’t wake up, Then it must be a seizure, I asked my oldest boy for his wallet, he quickly gave it to me, I pried his mouth open and put the wallet between his teeth. I kept trying to get him to come out of it, but it was fruitless. It was then that I asked my wife to call 911.
When the fire department arrived, My son was still unconscious, The E.M.T. told me he was having a seizure, he will wake up in a minute. And he also told me that it was a myth that people swallow their tongue during a seizure so there is no need to put something between their teeth, you just let them lay on their left side until the seizure is over. My son started to wake up after a few minutes. He looked up from his bed and saw all of those people watching him. The E.M.T.’s saw he was all right so they left. As soon as they left my son got out of his bed, he was angry, I asked why? I wet my bed; it was to embarrassing for me.
I had just bought a wrecked pickup truck for the boy. I was in the process of fixing it, so he could drive it, when he got his license. He went to the motor vehicle department the day after the seizure to get his license. They refused to give it to him. Because the fire department reported that he had a seizure. He made many trips to the department of motor vehicles trying to get his license. Finally a man told him if he did not have a seizure within a year, he could get a license.
He had another seizure within six months, it was reported to the department of motor vehicles again. This time his license was taken away for the whole year definitely. He went that full year without the department of motor vehicles knowing he had a seizure, they gave him his license back, Then one day as he was driving to another brothers home. He had a seizure. Police thinking his pickup was broke down, stopped behind him and radioed in to check on the truck. His Mother heard his name mentioned on her scanner and quickly drove to the place mentioned over the police radio, She saw the pickup there with her son having a seizure in it. She quickly moved the truck to the side of the road, and with much difficulty moved her son into her car. And then went and talked to the officers.
His pickup just broke down and he phoned me to pick him up she told the cops. He got away with that one, thanks to his mother’s quick thinking. But he eventually got caught having a seizure. His license was taken away again. But he continued to drive, {A sixteen year old boy has something in him that he must drive a car.} His Mother and Father advised him not to drive, but he was insistent. But he did go a year without being caught. So he got his license back again.
He was under a doctor’s care in California. But the doctor was not helping him; all he would do is give him pills to make him dopey. The poor kid could not hold a job. His parents had moved to Washington, he lived with one of his brothers and his family for a while, and then he moved in with his sister and her family. He was able to get some money from the state. He gave most of it to his sister for support.
He got to know a girl at a tavern where he pla
yed pool. They were together almost every night. She became pregnant. In nine months she had a baby girl. The boy loved that baby. He baby-sat her while the baby’s mother worked. It wasn’t long before my son moved in with her. He continued baby-sitting his daughter, until he couldn’t take it any longer. His parents sent him money to buy a bus ticket to Washington. He moved in with them and got on the state of Washington’s welfare. They not only gave him money every month, but they also paid for his medical needs. He in turn got a great neurologist, the good doctor found out there were twisted blood vessels on his brain.
He found a neurosurgeon that would operate on him. And within a month the operation was performed. His Father sat on one side of the waiting room by himself. Her friend and her daughter comforted his mother for three hours. When the surgeon came out and said, the operation was a success his mother started crying and the Father got up and shook the surgeon’s hand while saying thank you doc. The boy went fort a few days with a large Horseshoe shaped scar on his scalp. (The doctor had to lower his ear to open his scalp in the right place.} Three days after he had the surgery, he had eight grand mal seizures. His parents took him to the hospital. When he was in the emergency bed his father went in to see him. The boy motioned to his mouth and shook his head no. He wasn’t able to talk.
Needless to say it frightened him. {The twisted blood vessel was close to the speech part of the brain.} His father was scared too.
The neurologist was called, and he said, don ’t worry, his brain swelled from the operation. The next time his Father saw him, The boy greeted him with hello. Oh! How happy the father was, he hugged the boy.
After the boy came home, his mentally challenged brother was acting up. The boy had to wrestle him to the floor. His Mother and Father were worried about his operation. He had a terrible scar on his head. But he got the job done without injury. His Mother and Father were so happy about that. {His Father was handicapped.} About two months went by, the boy went to the neurologist to see how he was doing. The neurologist told him he would not have to take pills anymore you are cured. Oh how happy the boy was to hear that, his father who went with him, thanked the doctor and shook his hand, and said, thanks for giving my son back to me.
The boy didn’t take any pills that day, but that evening he had a grand mal seizure, he went back to the neurologist and told him what had happened. The doctor told him that he would probably have to take pills for the rest of his life, but not the kind that make him dopey.
The boy has a nice home and family now. He has a great job; he goes to work every day. Life is precious to him now.
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