Never Give Up Hope

March 10, 2012—This was the day that I never gave up hope. This day is the saddest day of my life every year because of what could have happen. This was the day that my brother was in a horrible four wheeler accident.

It was a regular Saturday, my friends came over and we shot basketball, my parents went to Lowe’s to get things for the kitchen, and my brother was being with his friends. I was looking forward to the Big East tournament championship game between Louisville and Cincinnati. It was getting to be late afternoon and my brother came home to get some stuff. We talked for a little bit and then he left. I did not know I was going to be the last one of my family to see him before it happen. It got late and my friends went home and I was ready for the basketball game. My mom decided to go to the gym before the game started, so my dad and I were on the couch ready to watch the game and that is when he got the phone call.

This was the scariest phone call ever because I could hear the fear in my mom’s voice. “What happen”, I heard my dad say and I could hear that my brother was in trouble. My mom hurried and when she got home it was heart breaking to see her covered in her tears. She was so heart broken, she couldn’t even tell us what had happen, but finally I was able to understand.

My brother had hit a tree head first and he was not wearing a helmet and that is all we knew. He was being flown to the University of Louisville hospital. He was not there yet when we got there so we had to wait in a room as big as a closet.

When he finally got there, they had to go immediate surgery and couldn’t clean him, but they let us see him before the surgery. It was devastating that I almost passed out and I couldn’t be in there for long. I went outside and I prayed and prayed for my brother to be okay, but I had this weird feeling that he would be okay.

The surgeon came to us and said that it was unlikely my brother would live past the night and for some reason, I never gave up hope. I never thought I had lost my brother and it turned that I didn’t. He made it through surgery and started recovering and the whole time I never thought I lost him because I never gave up hope.

It turned out he did not die on impact after hitting the tree, but he had a guardian angel watching him. There was a nurse there and she gave him CPR until the helicopter got to him. She told us that if he didn’t hit the tree, he would have went off a cliff and died. So I know it is crazy to think, but I am thankful for that tree, his guardian angel, God, and thankful that I never gave up hope.