The Blink of an Eye

Me and Cindy in our younger days

 Last week, a couple of things happened that have further impressed in my mind just how fragile this life is that we are living.  My very best friend from high school Cindy Smith is here in town for a while.  Not because she's on some kind of vacation but because her 17 year old daughter Courtney, is in extremely critical condition at a local childrens hospital.  She is being kept alive with an ECMO machine (lung bypass, similar to the heart/lung bypass machines used in open heart surgery) as she is suffering from a pulmonary embolism, pulmonary hemmorage, pneumothorax,  pneumonia and ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome.)  The doctors have labled her the sickest child in the hospital. A couple of weeks ago, she was
graduating from high school and had a sore throat.  Now, in the blink of an eye, she's fighting for her life in a hospital hundreds of miles from home.  Drs. don't know what caused her pneumonia so they are treating it with everything they've got in hopes something works.  Her lungs have to heal in order for her to be taken off ECMO.  Right now, I think the pneumonia is their biggest concern.

Cindy's beautiful daughter Courtney

Thursday, I made arrangements to go and see Cindy and her family up at the hospital.  Just prior to the time I was supposed to leave I got a call from my niece, Jennifer, asking if she could ride with me as she would be going to an adjacent hospital.  She is a professional photographer who volunteers time to do pictures for families who are suffering a stillbirth or early loss of a child.  She is affiliated with an organization called Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.  Anyway, the call had just come in that they needed a photographer for family who had suffered a horrific tragedy that morning.  It seems that a woman was just driving down a street she had likely driven hundreds of times before.  She was at work and was going to visit a client.  She was pregnant, had not had an easy time conceiving her baby and had a challenging pregnancy.  She had just hit her 32nd week and was finally feeling better about the prospects of bringing home a healthy little girl.  Then, in the blink of an eye, a car crossed 5 lanes of traffic and slammed into her car head on. It was later revealed that the driver of that car had suffered a heart attack and died.  The force of the impact shoved the engine into the womans lap, rupturing her uterus and killing her unborn baby girl.  Just that fast, their whole lives changed.  Their baby was gone, and the baby's mother was in critical condition.  It took over an hour to get the mother out of the car and it was later determined that the baby she was carrying had saved her life.  She was in such a position that she kept pressure on her mother's organs keeping her from bleeding out. What an incredible gift she gave her mama.  Jennifer was able to get some beautiful pictures of this special little angel baby for this incredible family.  I have never been so proud of her as I was that night.

I've never felt so aware of the fragility of life as I did driving home with Jen and talking about what we had both just witnessed.  With every sunrise, we really don't know what is in store for us.  It isn't in our control, rather that control belongs to He who knows all.  My prayers are with both of these families that they will have the strength necessary to endure.  May God be with them.