Stephen wrote:

“My mom died when I was 8 months old. I almost died too.  I was born too early and weighed 2 pounds.  After my mom died, I was scared, after all, who was going to love me or stick up for me?  I had tubes and wires hooked up to me instead of cool clothes and toys.  The only brothers and sisters I had were other patients and my only mom and dad were nurses and doctors who did things to me.

My arms and legs didn’t work very well so I couldn’t reach for anyone.  My eyes didn’t see real good and my lungs didn’t grow big either.  Most of the time I couldn’t do anything except just try to breathe, it was really hard.  Nobody came to see me cuz the doctors said I would die soon.  No one wants to visit a kid who’s sick, especially one who is dying.  Nobody played with me either, well, almost no one.  There was this one nurse who dressed me up real cute and took me everywhere the other kids went.  She took me outside and to the store and even to a Twin’s baseball game. 

I liked it when she took my hand and helped me pet the therapy dogs but I didn’t move cuz I was scared. I must not have loved my mom enough or she wouldn’t have died. If this nurse saw me, she might die too and how could anyone like me. I was sick and little and the big shots said, “There is no hope for him.” They called me some kind of a ‘vegetable.’ It’s hard enough to be a good boy when you don’t have epilepsy, cerebral palsy, lung disease and are dying.  I didn’t want the diseases either, but I couldn’t get away, they were attached to me. I wanted my mom back and to go home, play and sleep in my own bed. So, I just stayed inside myself.  One night…”

Chriss says:

While searching for my George Clooney look-alike doctor/husband to complete my Cinderella life I, a single, fun loving nurse, was assigned to care for a little boy who was in a “chronic vegetative state.” He didn’t respond to anything, not ever painful stimuli.  The doctors, my peers, said, “He’ll be dead by morning, don’t waste your time, he’s not worth it. He won’t amount to anything.  Just do what you have to; it won’t make a difference anyway.  There are thousands of these kids.  They probably shouldn’t have been born.'

I took him everywhere the other kids went.  Then the pet therapy dogs came I dressed him in his cutest clothes, it was like dressing a Raggedy Andy doll.  I placed my hand over his and moved it over the fur of the dogs.  They even licked his face, but he didn’t even budge.  When his roommates went to a Minnesota Twins baseball game we went along with a wagon load of medical equipment in tow. Kirby Puckett hit a grand slam in the bottom of the 9^th inning and the crowd went wild!  If he couldn’t hear or see then at least he could feel the vibration as the stadium rocked.  Yet, this beautiful little boy didn’t even budge. 

For a moment I thought maybe his doctors were right, “his brain is already dead, and we should let him die.”  Maybe the politicians were right, “he’s not worth the resources, save your energy,” maybe the public was right “lights on but nobody’s home” and maybe my family was right, “don’t get involved, he’s going to die and break your heart.”

But…

Stephen was my patient so I decided to care for him as I cared for all of my other patients.  We went everywhere.  Whatever the other kids did,  we did and when I didn’t know what to do, which was most of the time, I read to Stephen.  One night in my hurry to clean up and get out of the busy ICU room, I over-filled a tray with medical paraphernalia…

Stephen wrote:

“…this silly nurse dropped a big tray of stuff and woke me up.  The noise was so funny I laughed out loud.  I tried to be quiet, I really did, but I just couldn’t stop laughing.  She picked me up. I knew she wasn’t scared of me cuz she looked right at me and smiled, so I just kept on laughing.” 

Chriss says:

I couldn’t believe it, Stephen was laughing.  His whole body shook, his face was beet red and heheheheheheee was heard all over the room.  Stephen Michael Rondell, the little boy who “will never wake up” was laughing.  I scooped him up in my arms and saw his eyes for the first time.  He looked right at me and smiled.  There really was a little boy inside of that beautiful shell.