2009 had just begun and I was instructed to be very quiet and do nothing. Very odd. I tried to follow along. A couple of days it seemed like my brain was bathed in "a bath flowing over me of sorts" for hours. Margaret, my wife, didn't seem to mind. Sometimes I was made to lay down and be very very still. I didn't understand why. Sometimes the flow would go on for hours.
Then we got an unexpected call from our daughter. One of the foremost teams on brain herniation and swelling and the one of the foremost teams on liver failure told us to fly out immediately to UCLA because our son would not make it or at best would be a complete vegetable kept alive on machines. We immediately got on a plane with clothes for a funeral. I was "instructed" on the plane to "wash him like a baby". I was "instructed" also only to pray that God's will be done, and no other prayer or wish. Not too long after arrival a nurse, a kind man, allowed me to wash him, sometimes alone. I still wonder why I felt awkward.
For 2 weeks we sat by him as he was in a coma as the teams of doctors consulted. At first he was in a liver transplant unit because for weeks he had no liver function at all. When the brain scans showed massive swelling of the brain outside the skull he was eliminated him as a candidate for a liver transplant. The teams of doctors and nurses could give no real hope at that point. The emotions around us were high and there were other families in proximity with much emotion as well.
For about 14 days he was in a coma and a routine developed, part of which was fighting through the heavy traffic and relatives supporting his wife and watching his 2 and 5 year old son in microscopic rooms. I told his 5 year old son he might not live. I told his father in law about a person who was miraculously healed when doctors had given up. They finally worked to bring him come out of the coma as there was nothing else to be done.
He came out briefly and gave a thumbs up, hand trembling. His eyes seemed to know who we were. They were astounded when he recognized some people and talked in very small sentences. He had no short term memory so repeated himself endlessly each hour for hours on end.
" How do I get out of here." or I'm thirsty every minute or less. His pain was severe.
Later he did not remember the first week of consciousness and who was there or his life before the hospital.. He did not remember the previous 3 years nor the birth of his second son. He was as weak as a baby and 80 lbs under weight. He could not walk, his right hand trembled constantly and there was talk about 5 years of therapy because of a stroke on his right side. Yet he was calm for the first time in years , I thanked God for I then knew he would be OK.
A week later he was tentatively walking. Another week later they were going to show him how to subtract because he didn't know how. After he slept his mind knew what to do without instructions. He became left handed. Another week later his wife said to him "have you noticed, your right hand isn't shaking?" For me it was like watching a second birth and all the stages we go through our first 5 years, but it was accelerated. He himself was in amazement at all that was restored to him.
I just now realize they wash newborn babies as well as people that have passed on.