Tyrone is a young man in his middle teens who is now lying in a hospital bed in a coma. The reason he is here in the hospital is because of some bad choices he made in his life.
For starters, Tyrone D. (I won't give out his last name, for his family may be in danger if I reveal his last name) is 16 years old, a once bright student who scored high marks in his schoolwork and played on the school basketball team. He was a good kid, according to his parents (but then ALL parents say this about their kids; I do with mine, even when they are causing me no end of grief), but around the age of 12/13, about the time he entered junior high, he started hanging around with the wrong crowd (gang kids) because his parents had just gotten a divorce, and he was having a hard time of it emotionally. He felt all alone and scared, and he needed the companionship of others, particularly those nearest to his age. Seems that the kids he met at that particular time were into gang activity and some were using drugs or into things like stealing cars or money just so they could get more drugs. They also did things like assault old people or cuss out the authorities; and laugh when they were arrested. When they WERE taken to jail they talked their way out of it; and they were usually let out. He soon developed a sense of power, and soon his life revolved around the gang and the kids he associated with. He didn't care about school or his family or his former friends any more.
Well, last month, Tyrone D. and his "homeboys" got involved in a gang fight between two rival gangs; and as a result he was shot at close range. He was shot in the face, and part of his brain was blown out. He is now lying in a coma, hooked up to a myriad of tubes and wires, which are keeping him alive--barely alive. He can't hear, see, talk, or even think; there is evidence that he is hopelessly brain damaged--and possibly even brain-dead; but his parents are holding onto the hope that he will one day wake up and be just as he had been before he had been shot.
His parents stay by their son's bedside each waking moment of the day; when it is time for visiting hours to be over, they don't go home--instead, they sleep here at the hospital, in the Critical Care waiting area, hoping for some miracle to happen.
But so far nothing even CLOSE to a miracle has occurred. Their child is still lying in a coma, and it doesn't even look like he will ever emerge from it. If he does he will probably be nothing more than a vegetable and will require around-the-clock medical care for the rest of his life.
Tyrone has two little brothers, Drake and Quinceton, and a little sister, Dyeisha, and the kids are at the hospital, too, along with their parents; but they are too young to see their older brother; and it would be too traumatic for them to see their brother lying motionless in a hospital bed, looking more dead than alive, with tubes hooked up to every square inch of his once-muscular brown body. While his parents spend time with Tyrone I play with the little kids, and I try to answer questions they may ask regarding their brother's situation. I also try to encourage them and say that he is on the road to recovery and soon he will be home with them; but I can definitely see the fear and uncertainty in their young eyes and on their little faces. It is gut-wrenching, and it is enough to move me to tears; for I have been in the situation they are in now more times than I'd really like to admit.Like the one time when Johnny had the meningitis and he was so sick, or the time Ronee' had her stroke and was paralyzed and not knowing whether either child would ever recover. It is a raw and emotional time, and the stress level is absolutely mind-boggling. I tell them about my kids, and the time that they were so sick, as their brother is now, but I also tell them that my kids are now fine and that their brother will be, too. We then pray together, in the hopes that Jesus will deliver this desperate family the miracle they have been praying for so long.
And all because of some wrong choices that this young man made in his life. Such a waste. And such a tragedy, a tragedy that DIDN'T HAVE TO HAPPEN.
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Reviewed by Tyrone Banks
5/1/2003
You have written the story of today's troubled youth. When I was younger, I began to transition to the "dark-side" but thru my family and God, I walked away from it all on a day that could have changed(ended) my life. My only hope is that my children will also choose to live as opposed to fall in league with undesireables who choose to "stray from the path" Thank you
We pay for the choices we make...let us all make the right choice and not harm another, either in actions or in words. Great write, Karen! (((HUGS))) and love, Karla. :)
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