Harry

Harry is a very good friend of mine. He has 3 children and Micah, the youngest at 4 years old, is my god-child.

This is why when the Chinese doctors decided to surgically open his head to relieve it from excessive swelling, I found myself blankly staring at the wall. His wife was finally on the way to China after her week-long processing of passport and visa but she has not the slightest idea about the emergency situation that is on-going at that very moment.

You see, Harry is one person you would least expect to be in such critical condition. He is just 35 years old. He was the head of our maintenance unit. He never declined any difficult job cleaning ceiling-mounted air-conditioners, maintaining and repairing all the greasy, noisy and heavy plant equipments. Name any odd and difficult jobs you can think of in a factory and he can do it. He is simply a strong bodied person.

Rewind and forward. I was offered a job in China and he resigned from his work so he can put up his own maintenance business. But as soon as an opportunity was available in our company, I recommended him for the position. He accepted it and came to work in China. He worked double-time to learn his new job whilst running his business at night by making the planning and decision about schedules and all technical matters with his wife via chat or email. He compensated his work stress and lack of sleep by eating many Chinese food to his delight. Keeping it to himself, however, he was already feeling occasional headaches and blackened eyesight which were all precursors of something to come.

And then it came. After just 2 months in China, he suffered a stroke which we all thought was just a mild one. He was confined to the hospital for observation after the attempt to remove the clot was unsuccessful. For the next 5 days, our Filipino friends and I have seen his improving condition even-though his whole left body was still immobile. He was always looking for his wife and kids whenever he was partly conscious and was even cracking some jokes on his condition.

On the fifth night however, he started to be non-responsive to our calls. He became heavily groggy and just wanted to sleep without eating that the doctor has to insert the feeding tube up to his nostrils again. By the next day, he was not anymore responding even to the strong push by his attending doctors. They discussed and decided on their next step which was to be the emergency surgery.

A third of his right brain died during the stroke which is now swelling incessantly thus putting pressure on the left brain. This pressure, according to the doctors, must be relieved by removing portions of the dead brain cells to ease the swelling. The surgery need to be done within hours and the waiver must be signed before that. But Harry’s wife has just boarded the plane and can only arrive in the afternoon. They advised me to decide and to sign it instead.

I made several calls and seek other people’s advises. Bringing him to nearby Hongkong was an option but the doctors sternly warned me that Harry’s condition may not be able to withstand the long and bumpy travel ahead. It can speedily aggravate his condition and be fatally harmed. On the other hand, operating on Harry is just as risky as well.

Somebody has to decide and it was only me at that given time.The thought of Harry passing away based on my decision was bombarding my mind that I have to leave the doctors meeting.I went to Harry’s bedside and fervently prayed for God’s guidance.

Finally, the decision was to take our chances in Hongkong and I arranged the transfer. The ambulance doctor confirmed to me also that Harry’s condition is critical at that stage and that traveling was too risky that he decided to re-direct the ambulance to the nearest qualified hospital instead of the originally planned one. He was rushed to the ER and the doctors quickly checked him up. It was the longest 2 hours of my stay in any hospital ER as I hopefully wait for any good news. They administered aggressive doses of medicine and brought him to the ICU while waiting for the diagnostic tests to be finished.

At that time, Harry’s wife also arrived at the hospital and was visibly worried why Harry was transferred from China to Hongkong. She tried to put a brave front as I narrated the events but I can feel her deep sadness.

After a seemingly endless wait, the doctor talked to us. Harry’s condition is out of immediate danger but still critical in the next hours. If his body responds negatively on the high dosages of medicines, then an operation was inevitable. Even if he survived this one, the doctors’ prognosis was lifetime wheelchair condition without any chance to recover his whole left body’s movement. A third of his right brain was dead and unrecoverable. Harry’s wife was devastated.

After a few hours of waiting, Harry’s condition, by the grace of God, took the turn from worse to stable as the doctors finally allowed us to see him. The couple could not hide their tears upon seeing each other so I stepped back outside to give them their privacy.

Everyday for almost 2 weeks, his wife has religiously prayed with him and read him spiritual books at his bedside. Needless to say, all his family members and friends were also praying for a miracle to happen.

God must have heard our sincere and desperate prayers because a miracle indeed has started. His condition continued to improve during his confinement until a time came when the doctors declared him fit to be discharged. Another weeks of rigorous therapy and acupuncture session has helped recover some movements on his left leg and foot. And the next CT scan results gave him the green light to travel back to Philippines. It was July 31, 2005, when he and his wife finally went home and into the waiting arms of their children who tremendously missed their father.

Today is June 18 - exactly a year after Harry’s stroke that almost made his wife a widow and their children fatherless.

Today, he can ably walk without his crutches. His left hand still has limited motion but his therapy is on-going. He is on a strict diet and medicine regimen. He still manages his maintenance business. He still cracks jokes and never really lost his sense of humor. He still enjoys playing with their children. He enthusiastically looks forward to going back to China in the near future.

Most important of all, he has grown to love God more and enjoy more time with his family.We were equally blessed to witness his miraculous recovery and can indeed attest to God’s divine plan for his family.

Thank you, Lord, for the miracle of healing that you are endlessly giving my friend.