They didn’t think their son would ever wake up.
A couple’s worst nightmare came true when their oldest son, 17-year-old Jeffrey Meister, had been rushed to the local emergency room after taking a nasty fall down some steps at his girlfriends place. His head struck the concrete, a blow so devastating it left him in a coma.
At first, Jeffrey’s father wasn’t sure about the severity of his son’s injuries because he’d only had a phone conversation with his son’s girlfriend, who kept the comments short and brief.
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When Meagan and Ryan both arrived at the local Michigan children’s hospital in search of their son, they were asked to sit in a private room by medical personal. It was there that the team shared that the prognosis of the teen was pretty grim, even after they performed emergency brain surgery.
The doctor’s present explained that Jeffrey had suffered from extensive brain damage from falling backwards and off the stairs outside of his girlfriend’s home. Due to the hard hit of his head on the concrete, his skull was cracked open and from that, he suffered from internal bleeding in his brain, swelling and a stroke.
The immediate surgery to the young man’s right skull seemed successful, but doctors were unsure if it would make him wake up from his coma.
Five days after the couple endured many sleepless nights, worry and bedside chats with their son in the coma, they were beginning to lose hope.
Then, suddenly, he woke up asking from his “mom” and “dad.”
Everyone was shocked. It looked more like a scene out of a movie than real life. Shortly after he said those two words, his road to recovery has continued to be nothing short of a miracle.
In a matter of days since his first words, he’s been able to have his feeding tube removed and his ventilator as well as begin walking with assistance and respond to questions.
The medical director, Stephen Guertin at Sparrow’s pediatric intensive care unit, the hospital and department the teen is in, told local news that, the hospital sees head injuries like Jeffrey’s every year, and usually they are fatal.
But, the 17-year-old’s recovery has been “really remarkable in my opinion.”
The Pediatric medical team estimates that it will take the young man about two years to make a complete recovery. And after he leaves Sparrow in the coming weeks, he will be going to a local rehabilitation hospital to provide him with cognitive and physical therapy.
Now that the whole family can speak to their son again, they believe that its a reminder that “miracles are out there.” And no matter how long it takes, the couple says, they will never give up hope.
The family has started a GoFundMe page. The financial goal set is $100,000. So far they have raised slightly less than $4,000.
(H/T: Detroit Free Press)
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