*This incredible story is shared with full consent from my former patient.

The story that brought him into our ICU was the kind of story that hits all of us peds ICU nurses in a particularly painful way. Previously healthy, just doing clap push-ups at home when whatever it was in his spine went awry. He grew numb. And then he couldn’t get up.

A spinal stroke.

He was intubated and quadriplegic when I met him. When we lifted sedation, he knew exactly what was going on. He’d jerk his head to the side and widen his eyes. I knew how to read his non-verbal language almost immediately. He was telling us to take that tube out of his throat. We couldn’t. His diaphragm muscles were too weak from his injury.

An uncertain future.

His parents consented to a tracheostomy within a week so he could have more freedom from the ventilator and move towards rehab. I connected well with him and his parents, and I ached for all the questions over his life.

He transferred out of our ICU to the med/surg floor, and tackled rehab like a beast. He had accepted his situation with peace, and also fought for recovery with fire.

I visited him after every ICU shift until he left our hospital for a long-term rehab facility. I thought I’d never get closure about his story, but that’s usually how it goes for us ICU nurses. We probably get too used to the perception and feeling that every story just ends in mucky, sad uncertainty.

From the rehab hospital, he and his family reached back out to us with updates and welcomed our visits. Two colleagues and I went to the rehab hospital to surprise him one day, and found him working with PT in the gym. He was lying on his chest on a bench, when we called his name.

To our amazement, he stood up with the brightest smile. He no longer had a trach. Just a scar. “They offered cosmetic reconstruction but I’m keeping this scar as part of my story.”

He and I emailed a couple times as he continued to rehab at home, and then lost touch about 5 yrs ago. I reached out to him and his mom yesterday, just thinking of him. To my delight, he wrote back immediately.

He’s graduating college next month. Living independently. Flourishing. He was gracious and articulate in his email.

My heart is so full. I’m so proud of him. Of us, the work we all did together. I’m so thankful to get to share in his joy over this incredible journey he has taken, and so thankful to have been a part of it.