raebates
Staff member
- 18,357
I received this email from a friend. I knew a bit about the incident, but this has the details. (I've taken out bits about contacting her.) Please keep this young man and his mom in prayer. He's in his early twenties.
Tuesday afternoon, I ran home for a few minutes between visits when I had a meeting canceled. I found a message on my answering machine telling me that Stephen had been taken to Parkview Hospital in Ft Wayne with a gunshot wound. I called the Hosp and they would not tell me anything except that he was there and he was alive.
When I finally got to the hosp, I found out Stephen had been robbed in his apartment at gunpoint by three guys and then was shot in the head. By some miraculous way, he made it down a very steep set of steps outside his two story apartment, and collapsed on the ground. The tenants in the downstairs apt heard the gunshot, saw the three guys run off , and saw Stephen in the yard. They called 911. The bullet went in just above his left temple and came out above his right eye. It tore out both of his frontal lobes, destroyed the sinus cavity in his forehead, and tore the membrane around the brain. He had surgery right away to try and remove bone fragments and to repair the damage. The neurologist and plastic surgeon worked together for nearly 5 hrs. They took muscle from his leg to try and repair the destroyed sinus cavity. Also used many screws and small plates. Before the surgery, the neurologist was clear that he might not make it through the surgery
and that if he did, there could be significant damage. He also prepared us that he might be blind in one eye. The DR said he had never seen this type of wound where the person was alive. He said if Stephen made it through the surgery, the next three days would be life and death.
Thank the Lord for His mercy and for all the prayers of so many people, Stephen made it through surgery and spent a shaky night in the ICU. The DR said he would be in ICU for three days and then he might be moved to a regular room. To everyone's amazement, yesterday afternoon Stephen started talking and was alert (as much as you can be on morphine and codeine). Two of the DRs said it was miraculous. The ophthalmologist was in awe that his sight appears to be good. More good news is that today, Stephen was moved to a regular room!! Praise the Lord.
The recent prayer concern is that this afternoon, he started having spinal fluid leak out through his nose. He is to be on his back for the next 24 hrs to see if the leak will stop. If it does not, he will need surgery to try and patch the leak. If necessary, they will remove more muscle from his leg to patch the leak.
Please pray the spinal fluid will quit leaking out his nose Continue to pray that there will be no infection or hemorrhage which the DR says would be life threatening.
He has a long road ahead of him, but at least he is alive to face it.
Tuesday afternoon, I ran home for a few minutes between visits when I had a meeting canceled. I found a message on my answering machine telling me that Stephen had been taken to Parkview Hospital in Ft Wayne with a gunshot wound. I called the Hosp and they would not tell me anything except that he was there and he was alive.
When I finally got to the hosp, I found out Stephen had been robbed in his apartment at gunpoint by three guys and then was shot in the head. By some miraculous way, he made it down a very steep set of steps outside his two story apartment, and collapsed on the ground. The tenants in the downstairs apt heard the gunshot, saw the three guys run off , and saw Stephen in the yard. They called 911. The bullet went in just above his left temple and came out above his right eye. It tore out both of his frontal lobes, destroyed the sinus cavity in his forehead, and tore the membrane around the brain. He had surgery right away to try and remove bone fragments and to repair the damage. The neurologist and plastic surgeon worked together for nearly 5 hrs. They took muscle from his leg to try and repair the destroyed sinus cavity. Also used many screws and small plates. Before the surgery, the neurologist was clear that he might not make it through the surgery
and that if he did, there could be significant damage. He also prepared us that he might be blind in one eye. The DR said he had never seen this type of wound where the person was alive. He said if Stephen made it through the surgery, the next three days would be life and death.
Thank the Lord for His mercy and for all the prayers of so many people, Stephen made it through surgery and spent a shaky night in the ICU. The DR said he would be in ICU for three days and then he might be moved to a regular room. To everyone's amazement, yesterday afternoon Stephen started talking and was alert (as much as you can be on morphine and codeine). Two of the DRs said it was miraculous. The ophthalmologist was in awe that his sight appears to be good. More good news is that today, Stephen was moved to a regular room!! Praise the Lord.
The recent prayer concern is that this afternoon, he started having spinal fluid leak out through his nose. He is to be on his back for the next 24 hrs to see if the leak will stop. If it does not, he will need surgery to try and patch the leak. If necessary, they will remove more muscle from his leg to patch the leak.
Please pray the spinal fluid will quit leaking out his nose Continue to pray that there will be no infection or hemorrhage which the DR says would be life threatening.
He has a long road ahead of him, but at least he is alive to face it.
