Death by wart

During Matthew's stay in hospital, in the space of a single day we saw a family's worst fears realised. Leighton, a 14-year-old-boy, came in to our ward late one night, with his father Craig. He had been suffering pins and needles for a couple of weeks, and then had what seemed to be a stroke, effecting the right side of his body. He could still walk, but his movement was restricted, his right arm clumsy, and the right side of his face pulled down in the way characteristic of stroke patients. Not good, not good at all, but the young recover quickly from strokes, their brains still having a level of plasticisty that we lose with age.

Only, it wasn't a stroke. It was a tumour, or to be precise two tumours, non-cancerous but inoperable because of their location on the brainstem. I wasn't vary clear about the distinction between cancerous and non-cancerous tumours until it was explained to me that a wart is, usually, a non-cancerous tumour. Then I understood. Only, this wart is killing Leighton. Because of where it is, the surgeons cannot operate, as to do so would mean cutting through his brain to get to it, thus killing him. All the doctors can hope to achieve are measures, either through chemo- or radiation therapy, to slow down its growth. But the best the doctors can offer this family is the hope that death may be delayed from being weeks, if not days away, to a year or so. However, as far as the doctors are concerned, the condition is terminal. Leighton is going to die because he has a wart growing in the wrong place. A wart.

Lord, come on. Look, many times in the past you offered signs and wonders that people might believe. I've heard people, knowledgeable people, speculate that history is a record of the gradual withdrawal of God from humanity, so that the God of Abraham and Moses, who led into and out of the wilderness, who was present as voice and fire, who parted the seas and fed in the desert, the God of the Apostles who released Peter from prison, the God of miracle, has receded. Maybe. These are knowledgeable people, and I respect their views. And it certainly seems to be the case that God has withdrawn during the last, blood-soaked, God-haunted century. But maybe this is not a one way process, the withdrawal of a tide never to return. Maybe there are rhythmns to divine activity. Maybe God has His own seasons, times when He sows and times when He reaps and times when He lets the earth lie fallow.

Now, Lord, now, is the time. Let Leighton live. Don't take him. Send him back. I mean, death by wart. Come on now. We know, we truly know, that there is something wrong in a world where parents bury their children. But to die because of a wart. That's not just wrong, that's absurd. You know, of course you know, that we human beings can tolerate evil because, well, we understand it: it's the fracture deep in our hearts. But pointlessness, that is something we don't understand. Against evil we cry out, against absurdity there is not even the defence of anger. Isn't it time to stop? Hasn't the time come for You to show forth Your hand again?

Lord, save him. Save us. Please.

Comments

[ukok]

Oh my, I don't know what to say. My daughter is 14 and I just can't bear to think of watching my darling baby being taken from me in such a cruel way. (or in any way, actually)

Praying for this dear child.

Lord, hear our prayer. But not my will but Thine be done.

God grant the family the grace required to live with this situation and to endure the painful times ahead.

Amen.

[Paulinus]

It may be that my constant, occupational exposure to death has made me blase, but death happens to the young for seemingly trivial reasons - a fall from a tree, a viral infection that would normally cause a stomach upset, an adverse reaction to a peanut, a sweet down a bronchus.

Yes, death by wart. The same signs and wonders we see in the intelligence and brightness of consciousness of our children - because part of that sits in the brainstem - is precisely the reason this boy is dying. A tiny tumour or lesion in the wrong place, such a vital place where the whole of the brain's nervous traffic will pass through will be life-threatening.

This boy does not deserve to die, but from what you say it is likely that he will. We can pray that against all hope it will not happen, but if it does that his family will be able to let go in love. No-one who has not had a child in a life-threatening situation can really understand what must be going through their heads.

I for one will keep them in my prayers.

[Bekah S.]

Oh, praying for the comfort of this family! My elementary school principal lost a child in similar fashion. I believe his tumor was somewhere on the spinal cord/column. It always seems so wrong to lose a child.