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Dr Angel Hernandez with Corban two days after brain surgery |
These photos are from 2005 when Corban was 6 years old. It was his second brain surgery at Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. The man shown is Dr. Angel Hernandez, a pediatric neurologist who directs Corban's neuroscience care still today. The surgeries were performed by neurosurgeons Dr David Donahue and Dr Johnnie Honeycutt.
Six years later the scar is still visible though not as easy to see. It's a simple reminder of a season of multifarious thoughts and feelings and it's times like this that bring out the boldness in me. I remember following Dr Donahue out of preop to say that I had one more question I didn't want to ask in front of my wife. He leaned his head to hear and I asked, "After this surgery will Corban be able to play the piano?" He looked at me as I continued, "because he couldn't play it before." A smile cracked across his caring face and while shaking his head, said, "That's bad, that's really bad." And those are the last words I said to the man who was about to remove half of my son's right hemisphere. But I knew the words on his mind were the ones he heard while praying over Corban earlier that November morning.
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Esther Amate, RN, EMU nurse and Betsy Bowen, CCLS, have a laugh with Corban |
