Jussta jussta@jussta.com

If you take the time to read this, I pray you will realize our problems are so miniscule. This is a true story, I was stunned. I am asking everyone to please send prayers and energy to my dear friend. I met Jessica and her husband, Mike on my trip to Puerto Vallarta - really beautiful people. Jessica gave me permission to share this. Bless, bless - and bless again!
"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain." Author Unknown ~ Jussta Thought

Love, Light, and Blessings All Ways, Jussta

www.jussta.com
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My son was in Columbus Ohio visiting a friend to celebrate his friend's birthday. They were out at a bar with several other firends when some crazy guy accused his friend of "disrespecting his girlfriend". This crazy person proceeded to pick up a bottle and hit his friend in the head with the bottle. My son John saw it happen from across the bar and tried to pull the crazy guy off of his friend. The crazy guy had a knife and proceeded to stab my son. 7 times. My son is a big guy but the crazy person ended up landing the knife to the left side of my son's head. John didn't think he
was hurt very badly but a girl there convinced John and his friend into letting her take them to the hospital. The ER realized how bad the wound was and when they attempted to do a CAT scan, my son coded.

We got a phone call on 2/1/07 at 1:30 in the morning from the Ohio State University Medical Center, an Er nurse informing me that my son was there and in grave condition. You can only imagine how paniced I was. My
husband, daughter and I grabbed our coats and jumped in the car and drove all night across 3 states to get to him. We drove through sleet and snow and sleet again, while all the truckers were pulled off the road because of the
awful road conditions. All the while I prayed the rosary that my son wouldn't die alone. God listened to this paniced mother.

My son was still in surgery when we got there. We ended up staying in Columbus for the next
month. We lived in the hotel closest to the hospital. John was in ICU for 7 days, they literally kept him alive with the drugs that they kept pumping into him. When the surgeon first spoke to us, he told us that the knife wound had severed John's carotid artery. He had massive internal bleeding, his brain had a midline shift and as best as he could tell from the CAT scan after the surgery, the left temporal was dead due to the stroke he suffered.

Over the next few days, John's condition improved. He was 26 years old andin great condition. Luckily, he was very strong. I stayed at his bed sideas long as they would let me. I worked his arms and legs as much as the
monitors told me he would tolerate. And I continued to pray. And again Godheard my prayers. By the end of the first week, John was starting torespond, first with just a thumbs up, then with a blink of an eye.

The nurses had to keep him tied down, they would let me untie him when I wasthere and he responded to me when I would tell him to leave his IV's aloneand to leave his head alone. They had a monitor in his brain due to thw
swelling and to monitor his intercranial pressure.

The morning they were going to try to take him off the ventilator, I went tomass in the chapel. The priest did a wonderful meditation on breathing. Itwas like God telling me, we could help John breath. And John did OK when
they took him off the vent. Slowly he went through the stages of comarecovery. But everytime he fell asleep, he wouldn't remember what was goingon. So Mike and I took turns staying with him so he wouldn't try to get up
by himself and hit his head. We both ended up taking a family leave ofabsence from work so we could stay in Ohio with him. We sent our daughterKatie home to Illinois to return to school. I wanted Mike to go home too.

I knew Katie would be lonely at home without us. But Mike wouldn't leave mein Ohio by myself. We were able to drive John home early in April. He wasin a n inpatient rehab facility in St. Louis for awhile. He has made great
gains. I contiue to pray for his full recovery, and God continues to listento my prayers. John is doing very well. He is living back in his own home.He still has short-term memory deficits, that may or may not improve. Timewill tell. We finally heard from the Ohio police, the crazy, drug abuserwas arrested last month. So we will have to return to Ohio at some point.

But for now I continue to pray, and I hope God keeps listening.