The Tribune

By DR KENNETH D KEMP

A BLANKET of milky white clouds, as far as her eyes could see, assembled in quiet unison and then slowly drifted away. The captain announced that they’d be landing shortly but Anna barely heard him. On a plane looking out her window, she gazed upon the open horizon, bathed in thoughts of her future. Memories of happier days swirled and for a moment she sighed and smiled, a glimpse at past happiness that vanished almost as soon as it appeared, replaced by a stronger sense, the ache of loneliness. Nothing had prepared her for this day. So much would rest on the hours ahead and the enormity of fear was evident in her tired, reddened eyes.

She’d heard stories of women who’d lost their husbands and were widowed before the age of 40. Friends of neighbours, community members. Not her, she thought. And no amount of island gossip or litany of church prayers could have prepared her for what she was feeling. Darkness bled into her subconscious and bellowed until Anna was stripped bare. The air became so heavy she struggled to breathe. Without consent, she’d somehow crossed onto hell’s doorstep and the devil was home.

It had all happened so fast. There was no time to prepare, no time to Google what could have happened or what the likely outcome would be.

Two weeks ago on July 31, in part one of this report, I told the story of Tyler who was born on the island of Abaco where he was raised by his grandparents. At age 12, when Hurricane Floyd destroyed their community, Tyler was forced to leave the only home he’d ever known. He went to live with his mother on another nearby island. Years later, in a case of mistaken identity, police officers beat an innocent Tyler until his intestines exploded. Following an eight-month recovery period, he sued the government. After ten years of fighting, Tyler finally received a monetary settlement. His joy was short-lived, overshadowed by the disappearance of his beloved grandfather who had gone out on a regular fishing trip and never returned.

It was an incredibly difficult time for everyone in the family. Tyler leaned on his wife Anna for support. By then, they’d been married for nine years and had recently celebrated the birth of their third child. But their bliss ended suddenly when, without warning, their lives were turned upside down. At a bar after work, Tyler had a series of volatile seizures and lost consciousness. He was 36 and except for the injuries from the police beating and a few minor headaches, he had enjoyed excellent health. He felt healthy enough that he ignored Anna’s advice to see a doctor about the increase in frequency of those headaches in recent weeks, putting it down to stress at work.

The day he suddenly became sick, Tyler had gone to work as usual. He’d slept well, eaten breakfast, checked on the kids and kissed his wife before leaving the house. He spent most of the day outside in the hot glare of the summer sun but as usual he maintained hydration by drinking water copiously throughout the day. After work, he stopped at a bar with some friends to smoke a cigar, drink and play dominoes. After about an hour, he began sweating profusely and he called Anna twice but each time he barely spoke and his speech was notably slurred. By 6pm when he hadn’t come home, Anna became concerned.

Back at the bar, Tyler’s friends placed a cool towel on his neck but when they noticed that he was only staring and not responding to them, one of them ran to his home nearby to tell Anna what happened. She grabbed the kids and ran back with him. By the time she arrived, a crowd surrounded her husband as co-workers were pouring cold water over his head. Anna knelt by his side and called out his name but he kept staring, his eyes never once glancing over to meet hers. Unable to verbalize anything, Tyler’s mumbles were soft and incoherent and he had vomit on his pants. Anna and several of Tyler’s friends had to physically lift him to the car.

It was after hours so, as she drove towards the clinic, Anna called the island nurse and begged her and the on-call doctor to meet them there. The children intuitively knew something was gravely wrong with their father and cried until their grandmother arrived at the clinic to take them home. On the way, Tyler had another epileptic seizure in the car, shaking uncontrollably, his muscles stiffened diffusely throughout his upper and lower body. The moment Anna turned him on his side to help him, foam exuded from his mouth like a pressure cooker that’s reached its temperature.

Anna’s brother and cousin helped Tyler into the clinic. His teeth were clenched tightly as he made repetitive clicking sounds with his tongue. In the clinic he suffered another seizure and he was stabilised intravenously with anti-seizure medication. Tyler lost consciousness and he was placed on oxygen. He was rushed by ambulance to the airport and air ambulanced to Nassau. In the ambulance, waiting for the plane to arrive, Tyler mumbled his grandfather’s name. Anna squeezed his hand over and over again, pleading with him not to die. Then, like nothing had ever happened, Tyler opened his eyes and began speaking normally, confused as to why he was strapped down.

Tyler said that he saw his grandfather sitting on a beach under a coconut tree with his legs crossed and smiling but when he felt her touch, he opened his eyes, hungry and unaware of what transpired over the past four hours. At the hospital in Nassau, Tyler had a CT scan of his brain and it was positive for a tumor measuring 2cm in size, about the size of a thumbnail. Unfortunately, his surgeon couldn’t operate on him for another four weeks and only if he didn’t have an emergency case before then, which would push him further down the waiting list.

Not wanting to delay his treatment any further he opted to be treated at a hospital in the US. On the plane, Anna gazed out at the clouds, her mind racing over the possibility of losing her husband and the immense sadness of leaving her children behind, the youngest still being breast fed. Tyler was immediately evaluated by the neurosurgery team when he arrived at the hospital in Georgia and a new scan was ordered, three days following his first, and his surgeon remarked that his tumor was in fact the size of a tennis ball. Tyler underwent emergency surgery the following day.

The night following his surgery Tyler felt like his old self. He watched a basketball game and ate crackers and two days later, after he was moved out of ICU to the floor, he was eating pizza. He remained in hospital for observation for an additional three days before being discharged. A little over a week later, Tyler noted swelling over his incision site and approximately twelve cubic centimeters (cc’s) of fluid had to be drained from the area at his surgeon’s office. A compression wrap was applied to prevent any further occurrence. Fortunately, he’s had no other complications, his tumor was benign and Tyler is grateful to be alive.

One of life’s greatest mysteries is what happens to us after we die and Tyler came dangerously close to finding out. So, his take home message is to never take life for granted because it could all be gone in an instant. Value the time you spend with your loved ones he says, and always put God first.

Today, Anna remembers stories of men and women who lost their spouses before the age of 40. There are times she wishes she’d forget and other times she embraces the reminder. Love and faith are the golden pathway to better days but the future is filled with uncertainty and at any given moment, her life could change forever. When the rug is pulled out from under you suddenly and you cross into hell faced with the possibility of losing the person you love the most, you’re never the same. In the back of her mind, Anna always fears that it can happen again and anytime Tyler has a headache, the repressed fear emerges.

And yet, despite it all, she remains hopeful that the long happy life she imagined with her family on her wedding day will come to pass. So, she prays and walks forward in faith, appreciative that her life feels normal again. So normal that now, when Anna gazes into the open horizon, her thoughts are one of hope. Hope for a future that may not always be perfect but one where, in the very least, she and her family are always standing on solid ground.

This is The KDK Report