As we begin this new year, what are you looking forward to?
Big changes? A new life?
That’s what’s in my view.
Earlier this year, in the case of a young woman in Ohio, it’s exactly what fate delivered: new life, literally.
In September of 2018, Kertisha Brabson entered the hospital.
Her mother, Kertease Williams, was called by medical staff.
She was told her daughter was speaking strangely, reaching for things that weren’t there, and dancing as though she were at a concert.
Then, something terrible happened: As reported by Columbus’s CBS10, Kertisha had a seizure which put her in a coma.
The news was excruciating: Her child was braindead.
Kertisha Brabson was in a coma for seven months due to a mysterious illness — but her and her mother's fight for her survival led to a second chance at life. https://t.co/oW1cSFQfq0 #10TV
— 10TV (@10TV) December 29, 2019
Transferring from medical center to medical center, the mom was advised to disconnect Kertisha’s life-support and let her die:
“We were going to keep moving her because once I saw the doctors scratching their heads that clearly let me know they gave up and they don’t know what’s going on with her. They told me she was brain-dead and pull the plug and all those things. Every decision that I made was because she got two little people that was depending on their mother to come home and that was her kids.”
As it turned out, Kertisa had anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain.
One of the early symptoms: psychosis.
In early 2019, the sleeping child ended up at Ohio State’s Brain and Spinal Hospital.
She was having as many as 20 sezures a day.
A doctor there — Sharddha Mainali — explained to WBNS:
“In someone [with] her condition, there is mortality above 60 percent.”
Dr. Sharddha instituted an aggressive approach.
Fast-forward to April 7th, 2019 — 7 months into her “braindead” coma.
On that day, a miracle occurred.
The doctor recalls:
“One of my residents who was on-call at night texted me in the morning and says, ‘You won’t believe what I saw today.’ I was like, ‘What happened?’ [I was told], ‘Tisha is opening her eyes and she’s following simple commands.’”
And right now, tonight, Kertisha is alive and well. She described the awakening herself:
“[The nurse] was like ‘Yeah, Ms. Brabson, you’ve been asleep for seven months.’ I was like, ‘Do my mom know?’”
Her mom learned soon enough and was ecstatic:
“He said, ‘Well, she’s woke up.’ Oh, my goodness, we just jumped up and down and screamed, and nobody slept that morning!”
Can you imagine the indescribable joy of knowing your baby has awakened? She’s come back to life, in spite of all signs of death.
And there’s great hope, as Dr. Sharddha describes:
“I am quite hopeful in her case that she’s going to continue to do well and hopefully live a normal life.”
What a wonderful story — and a reminder: No matter where you are in this world, there is always hope around the corner – the prospect of New Life.
There are many places to find it. In a love. In a faith. In those around you already, or someone entirely new.
And that’s what we all have possible. At this beginning of a new year, a new decade, a new chance.
To live life, as if we just awoke from a great sleep. And today is the first day of the rest of our lives.
Because — no matter what day it is — it can be.
-ALEX
See 3 more pieces from me:
This Video of Parents in the Armed Forces Surprising Their Little Children Will Leave You in Tears
Find all my RedState work here.
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