Why does any parent or family member have to hear “Your son is going to die any second,” when the doctors said a few seconds ago we can only have HOPE?

It was a quiet night at the time. I was playing with my younger brother Henry who was eighteen months old. I was a young girl back then when I thought that nothing bad could ever happen and that the world is an extremely safe place. I was running around in my living room with Henry playing with his Tonka trucks. My brother and I were racing his Tonka trucks and having a blast we were young and we were in an imaginary land. I thought that any thing was possible and my brother did also. I thought that I was a pretty princess and that my king was driving a truck and we were going to a race with our royalty friends. But I guess that the race did not go as planned for the truck went over the ramp I built and under the tiny coffee table that my parents and I bought before we moved to our new house. I saw the puny Tonka truck fell off of the track and under the table. I was about to go get it when Henry crawled under extremely slowly to be extra careful but I guess not slow enough. I saw the left side of my brother’s tiny noggin hit the corner of the tiny white table. I could hear that terrible scream that came out of my brother’s mouth it sounded like a bomb. I saw the tears rolling down my brother’s tiny pale face it looked like buckets of water and I could see the panic in my parents face as they quickly raced out of my kitchen to come to see what was wrong. I thought that the world was going to end and I did not know what was going to happen. I turned my head for two seconds and that had to be when my brother hit a tiny section of his fragile baby head. I did not know what happened the only thing I could hear was my mom crying and my dad on the phone. Even though I was young at the time I still knew that something was wrong and I needed hope and courage.

A few minutes later my mom came up to me and said, “You’re grandma is coming to watch you and your brother is hurt and we are bringing him to the hospital.”

I thought that my brother was the most obnoxious thing in my life but at that moment I thought that bad things could happen and that life was not an imaginary land any more. I watched my parents leave for the hospital and when they got into the car I waved to them until there car turned the corner. I was upset and though what was going on and is Henry going to be okay? I asked my grandma “Is Henry going to be Okay” and my grandma said, “At this point we need to have hope and courage.”

I asked my grandma “What is Hope.” My grandma said, “Think for the best.”

I had a long night and I waited for the phone to ring to hear my parent’s voice. Hours and hours went bye and there was no ring I was extremely depressed. I could not fall asleep that night I only thought about Henry. To fall asleep I sung a lullaby in my head like my mom did every night at bed time.
The next morning was like any morning I got up ate breakfast and got dressed and went to school. But there was a major difference my brother was not running around bothering me and I wished he was. Going to school was hard I was tired and upset. I watched the clock tick back and forth waiting to go home. During art class my teacher called my name and said, “Rebecca you are dismissed from school go pack up your stuff and have a nice day.”
I was extremely nervous because I never had left school early before and did not know what was happening. When I got to the office I saw my dad he looked tired, upset and he was not at work. I thought that it was weird that the teachers kept asking me if every thing was okay and that is when I realized that my brother was not okay and he is hurt and that is why he went to the hospital. There was no talking until I got into the car. I asked my dad why I am leaving school early and he said we are going to visit your brother at the hospital. It was a long car ride we must had been in the car for a half an hour and I was starving because I was about to have lunch at school. I noticed that we were not going to the normal hospital were I got my stitches and were my brother was born we were going to a different hospital. I tried counting every car that went bye to make the car ride go bye faster. When we got to the hospital my dad told me that I had to be on my best behavior. The hospital looked massive to me. I saw a lot of doctors and depressed people. I also saw a lot of kids with there parents and most of them were in there pajamas. I even saw some kids with machines to help them breath. The people I saw did not look happy they looked sick and most of the time I noticed the kids that were sick had a stuff animal in there hand. I started to have this weird ache in my stomach because looking at these sick kids made me think of my brother and I began to think why, why did this have to happen to me, and why is my brother going to have to go through with this and have to be at the hospital. My dad brought me into a tiny room. I saw a lot of toys and a enormous pile of stuff animals. The stuff animals in that huge pile looked like the ones the sick kids were carrying and even some of the kids that were there to visit there siblings or family members. Then I heard someone calling my name. I looked to the other side of the room and I saw my aunts and uncles and a lot of family friends. My dad said to me he could be back in a while and to be on my best behavior. I noticed that my family members did not look that happy and once again another person not in work. I was wondering why my family was not happy to see me because usually they will talk to me and give me a huge hug that I enjoyed.

I looked to the other side of the room a few minutes later and see my Mom, Dad, and a lady. I was happy to see my mom because I had not seen her since before dinner the previous night. They were both wearing weird blue scrubs and had weird surgical masks on and told me I had to wear one. I though they looked like they were wearing Halloween costumes and when they told me I had to wear one I was mad because I did not want people to make fun of me. But the only thing that made me happy was that this nice lady told me I could go see my brother if I put it on and I did. When I was walking to my brother’s hospital room I did not know what my brother was going to look like. I saw a lot of doctors in the same scrubs like my Mom and Dad and I were wearing and that is when I saw my brother. Henry was on a huge bed and was sleeping and was in a coma. I was crying because I saw no hair on his head and he was bald. I saw a scar from one end of his ear to the other and hundreds of stitches. I also saw this machine to help him breathe and lots of stuff animals around him. When my parents told me my brother was in a coma I asked for how long and the said, “The doctors said he is going to survive and is going to die any second.”

I could not believe what I heard and ran out of the hospital room crying.

When I got to school I did the usual did my morning work and said the pledge of allegiance. After the pledge of allegiance the school prayed for my brother and that made me feel worse. A few minutes later my teacher asked the class for our money for the fundraiser we did by selling chocolate. I did not have my money because I forget it at home because of every thing that was going on because of my brother. Mrs. M my teacher was truly mean because she knew that my brother was extremely hurt. I could not believe that she sent me to the Nuns office because I did not do the silly fundraiser for the school. I never had been to the office and I did not wan to start Know. My teacher called my mom and she said she was at the hospital and that I will be able bring it to school the next day and she said I do not think that is going to work. I was scared because my teacher was getting a mean tone in her voice and I did not want her to yell at my mom. The one thing that bothered me the most was that she said to my mom, “What’s wrong with him and why is he at the hospital.”

I felt so unhappy because my teacher knew what was wrong because the whole school prayed for him this morning. My dad came to pick me up from school early because my parents were mad at my teacher for yelling at me through this hard time. Days past and I was living across the street from the hospital with my grandma because then I could go visit my brother when ever I wanted to.

It was a long month Henry had a severe brain bleed and had five surgeries and was in a coma for a few weeks. I was not allowed to visit him because they did not want children on the floor my brother was on to get sick. I get sneaked up to see my brother by his doctor a few times which made me indeed happy because I did not know what I was going to be like if I hadn’t. I lived in the hotel across the street for two weeks and when my brother came home the doctors said, “This is a miracle we did not expect him to survive.”

Know doctors across the world have heard of my brother’s story. About a year ago I went to the doctors for a check up and my doctor said “I was at a class a few months ago about Caring for children that get major brain bleeds and Henry’s CAT scan and x-ray of his head was the model for doctors across the world.” My family realizes that Dr.D saved my brothers life and that he is a lifesaver.



Looking out for someone might even save there life. Even if they might seem obnoxious or annoying still keep an eye on someone that you care about .I have realized that life is full of twists and turns and even though the world may seem like a safe place at the start of something at the end it may not. Lau Tzu said “From caring comes courage.” I think that the caring does come through courage because the only reason I thought my brother was going to survive was because I had courage that he was going to survive was because I cared deep inside of me. Recently I raised over two hundred dollars to buy toys for kids that our patients at Yale hospital because I have realized many people in this world don’t have a easy life and sometimes if a person realizes that one persons cares about them might help them get through a had time. When my brother was at Yale hospital his roommate was extremely sick but his parents never came to visit and kids used to come to bring toys for him so he realized he is a good person and that someone does care about him I there heart.