David would not remember the spectacular ride in the ambulance. Nor would he remember the panic of his friend Stephen trying to revive him. He had slipped into an unconscious oblivion. In the emergency room, he would be given a priority status. Virus cases and broken limbs would qualify as less important as they tried to bring him from shock and decide what had triggered such a reaction.
“What happened?” the doctor asked Stephen as the nurse and intern administered the amount of medication called out by the doctor.
“All I know,” Stephen said, “is that when I left the apartment, he had taken two of these,” he said showing the doctor David’s medication. “He asked if I would awake him at eight so that he could take another dosage,” Stephen explained.
“Who are you?” asked the doctor. “I’m his best friend. I separated from my wife a few days ago and he said I could stay with him for a while. You know, until I figured out what to do,” he said.
“How long had he been taking his medication?” the doctor asked.
“I picked up the medicine for him after he called his doctor today. You don’t think it was the medicine do you Doc?”
“We’ll run some tests to find out. In the meantime, can you contact his closest family members?” the doctor asked.
“Sure, I’ll call his mom.” Stephen said. “Is he going to be alright?” he asked.
“He seems to have had a classic allergic reaction to this particular drug. It sends your body into shock. I’m sorry I can’t discuss it any further without family.”
“I’ll call her right now,” Stephen said.
There was no easy way to tell this parent that her child was in serious trouble. Yet, Stephen did the best he could to cause her not to panic.
Faye Edwards took the news better than Stephen imagined. She said she would call her husband and have him meet her there. When she called the office of Dennis Edwards, her brave act had been reduced to a whisper.
“Dennis,” she said. “Meet me at the hospital. David is gravely ill.”
“Who is this?” her husband asked after trying to recognize the voice.
“It’s Faye,” she snapped. “David is unconscious.”
“What happened?” he asked, trying to gather his thoughts which were racing at an uncontrollable speed.
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“Are you home?” he asked. She nodded.
“Are you home, Faye?” he asked again.
“Yes, yes I’m home,” she said.
“I’ll be there to pick you up as quickly as possible,” he said. “Try to stay calm.”
They said very few words on the way to the hospital. Mostly because they were afraid to talk. She did tell him that Stephanie was at an all-day field trip and wouldn’t be home before six that evening. They both agreed it was best not to upset her so far away from home.
The hospital receptionist informed them that David was on the third floor. Faye Edwards walked faster than normal to keep up with the pace of her husband. When they got to Room 307, they paused briefly, looked at one another and took a deep breath before opening the door.
The sound of a beeping machine and a nurse recording data from a printout nearly went unnoticed by Faye Edwards. She immediately went to the bedside of her son who appeared to be sleeping and called his name. When he didn’t answer, she grabbed his hand, ignored the intravenous tubing and started to cry.
The nurse looked at them both and said she would be right back with the doctor.
“I guess she didn’t want to answer any of our questions,” Dennis Edwards said.
The door opened slowly and a well-groomed woman that could have been 50 years old appeared ahead of the nurse. Her hair was pulled back and tied with a silky scarf, while a stethoscope adorned her neck.
“Hi, I’m Doctor Payne,” she said, extending her hand.
“I’m Dennis Edwards and this is Faye Edwards. We’re David’s parents.”
“What happened?” they both asked at the same time.
She smiled and looked at them both in a very caring way. “I know you both have lots of questions, so I’ll explain to you what we know at this time,” she said.
“Your son was feverish and called his doctor for a prescription. When he got the prescription he took two pills, according to his friend Stephen who was with him at the time. The medication he took had derivatives of penicillin in it.”
“Penicillin!” Faye Edwards blurted. “He’s highly allergic to that,” she said staring at her husband.
“That’s right,” Dr. Payne continued. “A short time later his body went into shock and what we call a low grade coma.” “We’re basically trying to give him a drug that counters the affect that the penicillin has had on him.” In most cases, the drug has been very successful. Yet sometimes, I’ll be totally honest with you, sometimes the patient is nonresponsive to the drug.
His vital signs are good and the drug usually works after about eight hours. It’s been two hours,” she said.
“Is it true that comatose patients can hear what’s being said?” Faye Edwards asked.
“We do have some medical proof that in certain cases, the hearing is unaffected by the coma. For those reasons, we do encourage caution in discussing the medical condition while in the presence of the patient. Upon arrival we did a cat scan and brain waves are normal. Let’s keep our fingers crossed or pray if you so desire.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Dennis Edwards said.
“By the way, David’s friend Stephen is in the family waiting room. He might be able to give you some more information on exactly what took place. I’ll be back in a few hours to check his vitals. If you need me, any of the nurses can page me,” she said, before leaving the room.
The hospital is a world of its own. Time passes but no one notices. Everyone is preoccupied with thoughts of what might have been done, what ought to be done and why haven’t they tried this.
Stephen offered all the support he could. He felt awkward admitting that he and his wife were estranged. He was glad that they didn’t probe further regarding his separation. He offered to go back to the apartment and check the messages for David in addition to calling his job. Secretly, he also planned to call Myra. Somehow, David’s situation had jarred him into thinking that life was short. He didn’t want to live it with regrets. He also thought it would be best for David’s parents to wait the situation out without interruptions from the outside.
Eight hours after having received the medication for countering the penicillin, there was no change in David’s condition.
“I’m going to call the Pastor,” Faye announced to her husband. “I meant to do it earlier but I got distracted.”
“That’s a good idea,” her husband said. “I’ll have Doctor Payne paged, we need to find out what’s going on.”
Dr. Payne met with them in the family waiting room. No one else was there. “We have no explanation to why he is still comatose,” the doctor said, showing a bit of nervousness that was not seen earlier. “There are other drugs to try, but we run the risk of triggering another reaction at this stage. I’m afraid we are sort of stuck in a wait and see mode. I’ll let you know if there’s any change. I’ll be in the area if I’m needed,” she said before leaving. She walked out the door and a familiar face walked in.
“Sister Marie!” Faye Edwards said with excitement as she hugged her tightly around the neck.
“Thank you so much for coming!”
“What do you mean?” Sister Marie said. “He’s my son too, I adopted him when he wasn’t looking. The Pastor was speaking to one of the nurses, he’ll join us in a moment,” Sister Marie said. I understand an allergic reaction caused this,” she said.
“That’s right,” Faye Edwards interjected. “Somebody wasn’t doing their job and gave my baby penicillin,” she said, getting very emotional.
“Don’t upset yourself any more than you already have Faye,” Dennis Edwards said.
“I’m trying to be calm,” she said. “It’s just not fair. He’s such a good boy.”
“Don’t you think the Lord knows that Faye?” Sister Marie said comfortingly.
“Now our job is to pray and believe God that this nightmare will be over soon.” At that instant, Pastor Taylor entered. He shook hands with Dennis Edwards and hugged Faye.
“You know that Marie and I are here for you, don’t you?” he asked. “I’ve already instructed Rose to get the prayer chain started.”
“How is she taking it?” Faye Edwards asked.
“She’s in the room with him now. But she drove her own car because she thought she might stay late.”
“She’s a sweet girl,” Faye Edwards said, not much louder than a whisper.
“Well, I’m just going to hang out in this sitting room for a little while. I can’t stand just watching him. He looks so - so lifeless,” Faye continued.
“I wish you wouldn’t use those words,” her husband said with a grim look. “That’s rather depressing.”
“I’m sorry,” she said sarcastically. “I’ll try to brush up on my word choices. I wouldn’t want to upset you with a bad choice of words.”
“Situations of this sort can be pretty intense and cause a lot of family strain,” Pastor Taylor said jumping in, hoping to prevent a fight. “Why don’t I say a prayer regarding God’s will,” he continued in his pastoral mode.
“Oh, it’s God’s will that my son be healed alright,” said Dennis Edwards rather forcefully. “I won’t pray anything to the contrary.”
Just as he stood up to make his point, Rose came through the door. Following her was a couple holding hands. Rose embraced Faye Edwards and Dennis Edwards and managed a little smile. Her face was streaked with black lines and her eyes were slightly puffy. Everyone knew she had been crying. I wanted you to meet this couple. David’s job told this lady what happened when she called to schedule her last appointment with him.
“Hi, I’m Darlene. This is my husband Keith,” she said pointing to a man with a long facial scar who was using a crutch. We heard about David’s illness and felt like we had to come down here,” she said. “Otherwise people might never know,” she said smiling.
“Know what?” Faye asked with a puzzled look on her face. “Keith, honey, why don’t you sit down,” Darlene said, pulling a chair closer for her husband.
“David helped to save our marriage,” she said grabbing Keith’s cane and kneeling at his chair. “I went to see him recently for counseling. I was depressed, and had lost weight and was having problems on my job. He seemed to not only counsel me, but I felt like I was a personal case. As if he were a one man crusade sent from God to save me. I tried to resist at first, but I couldn’t help it,” she said looking directly at Dennis Edwards. “He was determined to get me back on track.”
“And of course I had no idea any of this was happening,” Keith said. “I was feeling like a failure and blaming myself for past mistakes, while at the same time making a mess of my life.”
“Although David is young, he seemed to have wisdom beyond his years,” Darlene continued. “He taught me one thing that I didn’t understand. Prayer is not a tool to be taken for granted. I was so hurt that I wasn’t really praying. I was more or less just complaining to God. David taught me about confession and facing my problem. Then I began to sincerely pray for my husband in spite of the hurt that I felt,” she said looking at her husband.
“Then a few weeks ago, I was in a terrible accident,” Keith said. “It was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I experienced God in a way that I had not known before. In the time that I recuperated, I learned the basics about being a husband and father. I can’t begin to tell you how my eyes have come opened. I shudder when I think that this could have been the end of the Smith family,” he said shaking his head.
“Smith, did you say, what did you say your names were again?” asked Pastor Taylor.
“Keith and Darlene Smith,” Keith answered.
“My God, I don’t believe it,” Pastor Taylor said, getting up quickly from his chair. “This is incredible.”
“What’s incredible?” asked Sister Marie.
“The fact that,”
“Excuse me,” said a young man followed by a woman as he opened the door to the family waiting room. “I’m looking for the family of David Edwards.”
“I’m his mother,” Faye said, speaking before anyone else.
“I’m Dennis Edwards, David’s father.”
“Hi, I’m David’s neighbor Michael. This is my wife Brenda. We just learned of what happened to David when we got in from work. I just wanted to come and give support after all that he’s done for me and Brenda,” he said.
“What do you mean?” asked Faye.
“Well we’ve only lived next door to him a short time, but he had us over for chili one night and planted some life changing seeds into my life. I never really got a chance to tell him what a difference it made for the way I was living and trying to survive in my marriage,” Michael said.
“I’m not ashamed to say I saw a difference right away,” Brenda said. “I was impressed by the things Michael started doing differently. It’s all so strange, even the way we ended up living there. I really believe it was God’s plan.”
“Let me tell you both something you don’t know,” Pastor Taylor said. “David was assigned to pray for you both before he met you. He told me so. I know it sounds incredible because I didn’t believe it either. He called off his plans to marry my daughter Rose, because he had a divine assignment to help you. Rose, I know I never told you this because I thought David just had marriage jitters. He said he couldn’t marry you until God gave him permission. It had nothing to do with his love for you. I repent before God and all of you for being blind to what he was trying to tell me,” Pastor Taylor said, pulling out a handkerchief.
Rose got up from her seat and hugged her father. She wept and he hugged her ever so gently.
The McCain’s and the Smith’s said their goodbyes and promised to keep David in their prayers and believe God for a miracle.
“I think I’ll go back and sit in his room for a while,” Rose said.
The room seemed so full of love with everyone there telling their stories. When the five left, a silence fell over the group.
“We still haven’t had that prayer,” Pastor Taylor said. “Let’s hold...”
The door opened again and when they looked up there were two young ladies there. No one knew what to think.
“Hi Sister Marie,” one of the young ladies said warmly.
“Clarissa? DeBorah? Hi! How are you? Who are you ladies here visiting?”
“We heard about Brother David Edwards through the prayer chain,” DeBorah said.
“Well that’s nice of you to come out here to see him,” Sister Marie said.
“Not really,” said Clarissa. “Are you David’s parents?” she asked looking at Dennis and Faye Edwards.”
“Yes, we are.” said Dennis Edwards.
“I just want you to know that David along with Sister Marie helped to save my life,” Clarissa said. “Mine too!” said DeBorah.
“I didn’t think you two even knew each other before our women’s meeting,” said Sister Marie.
“Actually we didn’t,” said DeBorah. We were both referred to the counseling service by different people. I saw Clarissa several times as I was coming and going from the center. Then as strange as it sounds, we were the only single ladies invited to your group,” DeBorah said.
“After that, we started talking to one another and discovered that we had a lot in common. We were both dealing with low self-esteem problems and we both were well, suicidal. After we talked, we found out why we didn’t like ourselves, thanks to David. He told us certain things in common. We were the fruit of the womb, created by God. To kill ourselves would be to destroy the very fruit that God had intended for a purpose. The more he talked, the more I understood that I had been listening to the lies of the Devil. We might be bruised, but we are still fruit and thanks to David we plan to have fruitful lives. The very fact that Sister Marie invited us to that luncheon, confirmed that we were important to God,” DeBorah said.
“We’re not going to take up your time, we just wanted to see David and let you know we are praying for him,” Clarissa said.
Sister Marie went forward and hugged them both. Faye followed and they left.
“Something is happening here for a reason,” Pastor Taylor said.
“Dennis, did you realize the impact your son was having on other people’s lives?” the pastor asked.
Dennis Edwards was all choked up. He did his best to keep his composure. “Pastor, can we pray now?” he asked, in a very humble but direct way. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to lead the prayer.”
Dennis Edwards grabbed the hand of his wife and held it tightly. Sister Marie and Pastor Taylor completed the circle.
“Dear God,” Dennis Edwards began, “forgive me for my selfishness and my pride and for what I did to my family. He took one of his hands and wiped the tears that began to flow like a fountain. “I’m sorry God,” he said wiping his nose with the handkerchief that Pastor Taylor placed in his hand, “for hurting my, my- wife and kids.” At that point he threw his arms around Faye and they both wept together.
Sister Marie took her husband by the hand and nearly pulled him from the room. “Let’s give them some privacy,” she said. “They’ve got a lot of hurt to be healed and they don’t need us to witness the process. Let’s go check on David,” she said.
On the way down the hall they nearly ran head on into Stephanie.
“What’s wrong with my brother?” she said in a hysterical tone. “Where’s my mother and father? Please tell me something.”
“Are you just finding out?” Sister Marie asked with amazement.
“I’ve been on an all-day field trip. When I got home people kept calling and asking about David.”
“Have you seen him?” Pastor Taylor asked.
“Yes, sir,” but no one was around to tell me what’s wrong with him,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
“I guess Rose must have stepped out,” Sister Marie said. “David had an allergic reaction to some medication he was taking. Right now he’s in a coma.” Stephanie clasped her hand over her mouth to keep from giving the loud outburst that she felt in her stomach.
“Stephanie you’re going to calm yourself and go to his bedside. He needs to hear your voice,” Sis. Marie said.
“Now Marie don’t disillusion the child,” Pastor Taylor said.
“Honey, I’m not just saying that, I feel that within my spirit.”
On the way to the room Rose met them as she left the ladies room. She gave Stephanie a hug and held on to her.
They walked in the room and Steph took the seat closest to David. The others stood back at the foot of the bed. Stephanie took his hand and looked at Sister Marie. The nod that Sister Marie gave must have been all the reassurance that she needed to talk with her brother. She stroked his hand and told him stories of childhood memories. He was always there to help her and get her out of trouble. She reminded him that he said he would take her to the prom to keep all the guys away. Then she laughed and told him he had better wake up because someone else had asked her today if she had a date. She closed her eyes for a moment, when she felt a tug. She thought perhaps a jerk reaction was taking place while she stroked his hand. When she opened her eyes, she saw that David had actually gripped her hand loosely and was holding it.
“Hallelujah,” Sister Marie said with tears of joy coming down her face. “Did you see that? Rose get the doctor. Honey, get Faye and Dennis, look - David is starting to wake up!” she said with enough excitement to scare everyone into action.