Patrick: Keeping the Faith
Funeral plans had already been made for 11-month-old Patrick McFeely who was seemingly losing his battle with bacterial meningitis. But Patrick's family now knows that God had other plans for their son, who is an adorable eleven year old. Patrick was hooked up to breathing and feeding tubes at Wolfson Children's Hospital, and his family had to make the heart wrenching decision of whether or not to keep their baby on the respirator. "We decided that if our son couldn't breathe on his own, we would have to say goodbye to him," recalls his mother, Lisa McFeely. Without the ventilator, Patrick breathed on his own. "We then decided to remove the feeding and intravenous tubes," says his mother.
Again Patrick withstood the odds. He was sent home on his first birthday with hospice care. "Our neurologist said that his movements were reflexes; there was not a little boy in there," recalls his mother. That all changed when Lisa noticed that when Patrick drank, he would always move his hand up to the cup. When they returned to Wolfson for a CT scan, the neurologist said, "There is a little boy in there somewhere." Patrick had surgery, for a VP Shunt, to alleviate the pressure from the spinal fluid on his brain. After that surgery his parents and neurologist quickly saw improvements.
His vision has been restored and he has had cochlear implant surgery and wears a hearing device that allows him to hear. He started walking at age 5, and is currently being home schooled at a second grade level. "Patrick will always have obstacles," says his mother, "we take them for granted, but Patrick takes them with stride, determination and perseverance."
Developmentally Patrick is several years behind other children. "But compared to his initial prognosis, he is doing wonderfully," says his mother who remembers that after the meningitis all she wanted was a smile from her son.
She received that smile a month after Patrick's surgery; he has been smiling ever since.
