Christmas Day December 25, 2008
I looked around the room and I could see and feel the pain and the despair all around me; we were in shock. We are a large huge family, closely knit with the normal family issues that usually come when you are close (the normal butting in each other business but at the end of the day we seem to unite in the good times and hard times). We also have “best friends” that have joined our family over the last few decades, they were also there. If you have ever seen the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, that is a good analogy of my family. I was trying to count all the people in the room to keep myself from crying and stopped at 35. It was giving me a headache.
I happened to be in my sister’s room when the doctor arrived and examined my sister. He told me when he was done he would like to speak to the family all at once. I left and headed down the hallway to join our family. I knew in my heart after visiting my sister that it was bad…you see my sister Delia (Dee ) looked like she had been a victim of a bombing, she was a mess. I left and joined my family, and waited for the Infectious Disease Doctor to complete his diagnosis and come speak to us. I kept telling myself to reach out to God, and that He could stop our world from spinning out of control.
Doctor Patel walked into the Family Lounge at Lewisville Memorial and looked at the sea of people. He asked if all of us were part of the King family. We all shook our heads “yes”. It seemed like we did it all at the same exact moment, Dr. Patel said “oh wow”. My husband David held my hand. I took a deep breath and concentrated on Dr. Patel. He told us that he was very sorry to give us his report; but that Dee had arrived at the hospital with fully incubated bacterial meningitis and that while they giving her an antibiotic to try to kill this bacteria she was gravely ill. They were going through the motions because that was their job. He started giving us examples of this horrible bacterium, the usual big medical words…too much for us to understand. I got up slowly and thanked him and asked him since he knew what was wrong with my sister would she be O.K.? He responded with a human kindness look, and said “no, we would lose Dee by the end of the day.” He asked for her husband, my brother-in-law Van, who by the way is handicapped, got up very slowly and leaned heavily on his cane. The doctor asked Van if he wanted to keep Dee on life support and that Dee ’s kidneys would fail and so would her heart. It would just be a matter of hours; Van responded with an affirmative “yes”. Doctor Patel looked at all of us and told us to keep praying and left the room. It was 2:00PM on Christmas Day. We were scheduled to all meet for our huge Christmas celebration at 3:00PM . I looked at the clock and felt my heart sink. I thought of Dee and knew she would never forgive us for not celebrating Christmas. I got up and with tears flowing on their own accord, I somehow found my voice. I told them all that Dee was coordinating Christmas this year and that we needed to finish this Christmas with a celebration. We still had Dee with us. I told them what they knew….that we needed to stand united to withstand what was to come. My mother requested that someone pray. One of my brother-in-laws lead the family in prayer. We left and headed out to my sister’s house. Her house was not where we were supposed to have Christmas, but it was the closest to the hospital. Van and my husband David stayed behind. They would stand vigil while we went on to our Christmas celebration. Numb and in shock we attempted a celebration, and it wasn’t until the little ones laughed, giggled and smiled that we felt “Aunt Dee” with us. You see my sister Dee, is loved by all her nieces, nephews, grand nieces and grand nephews. They love her with this hero worship love; I knew at that exact moment that Aunt Dee would not die, it was 4:05PM on Christmas Day.
Her heart did stop on Christmas Day and her kidneys did fail, but by the grace of God, with good doctors helping, with all the love her family and friends surrounding her my dear sister kept on fighting for her life.
On December 27th 2008 when I was visiting Dee , and trying to ignore all the monitors and tubes connected to my sister, Dr Patel walked in. Our
“You are sister, right?” “I don’t know if you remember me, I am Dr Patel. I am here to tell you that your sister Delia is with us today because a great spiritual power, a power much greater than any of us. He has given life back to your sister. As a doctor I was very sure your sister would die on Christmas day, I wanted to come by and witness this wonderful miracle”. He leaned over to my sister, touched her cheek gently and whispered, “You very good Ms. Delia, very good indeed”.
Later that week, the doctors told us our Dee would most likely have severe brain damage, that very few people can avoid this when they are admitted to the emergency room with fever so high it does not register (108 is the maximum that is detected). They also told us they could not even try to guess if/when she would come out of her coma. She would lose her limbs and the only parts of her that remained undamaged were parts of her torso and face.
She came out of the coma, 13 days after she was admitted to the hospital. Her eldest daughter Karen and her youngest son Allen were there when she first opened her eyes. It was the happiest day of my life…it is imbedded in my heart forever, January 5, 2009 , the day my sister returned from her Christmas adventure to face whatever was ahead of her. I knew in my heart that there was no brain damage.
She still has a tube that prevents her from speaking, but speak she does, with blinks, winks, eye brows going up and down, and forming words with her lips, shoulder shrugs and smiles that touch your heart.
We had to tell her on January 12, 2009 that in order for her to make it to the next phase she would lose her legs and her fingers, and that the doctors wanted to perform the surgery right away. We had agreed as a united family, to let Dee make the choices in regards to her medical options whenever possible. My niece Karen, I and her husband Van delivered this message to her. She looked at us; gave us this chastising look and formed the word “WIMPS” With a very firm head shake she indicated “yes, I want this surgery, and yes, I want to live at all costs. With her head shaking she indicated she would be ok, and with her lips once again told us to quit being “wimps”.
On January 13, 2009 the surgery was performed and I am happy to report that my sister got to keep part of her legs, her arms, her eyesight, and her two thumbs…what a wonderful day it was…two thumbs, eyes that can see, lots of limbs, one big generous heart, a good brain, and a smile that lights up a room. My sister remains here for me, for her husband, her brothers and sisters, her grandchildren, her children, her parents, her friends, and her nieces and nephews. I count my blessings, they are a great number.
The road of ahead of us is long and going to be very rough, but we have a great leader leading this trip, my sweet wonderful courageous sister Dee. You go Aunt Dee!
An account has been opened to help my sister with medical expenses... Please note that we are prohibited on posting the information on the bank account on the internet. The family is accepting all prayers; as many as you want to contribute by any method possible, please send them our way.
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