WRITTEN BY SHMUEL T. ADLER

 

This is a special supplement article L’Zchus our dear son Yehoshua’s birthday and L’Zchus Purim. The article recounts some of the amazing miracles which we experienced with Yehoshua over the past year.

 

1)      Before our dear son Yehoshua was born the doctors (top doctors) all predicted that he would not make it, and if he would make it he would not survive for more than seven days. They told us that he would be “very, very, sick”. Yehoshua just had his first birthday! He has lived for an entire year!

 The major issues which the doctors had predicted that he would have before he was born were largely non-existent. The medical issues which he was born with were not the same ones which those doctors predicted. And thank G-d, they have improved tremendously.

2)      A few weeks after Yehoshua was born I arrived to work as usual. About 10 minutes after I had arrived, I received a phone call from Nechama. She was frantic. The doctor who was in charge of Yehoshu’s case had called her advising her to come to the hospital as soon as possible. I ran out to my car and tried to get myself to the hospital as quick as I was able (safely!). My heart was pounding loudly and I was breathing heavily. I called the hospital and they connected me to the doctor. She told me that although at the moment Yehoshua’s life was not in immediate danger, things were not looking good. His breathing was extremely weak and he was requiring extremely high pressures from his ventilator. The doctor said that she strongly suggested we come as soon as possible as they may need us to make life-decisions later that day and she thought it best we be there in person. I hung up the phone. Over and over again I told myself that he wasn’t in life threatening condition yet. There was still hope. I arrived at the hospital to find that though there was a small drop of improvement, things were still not much better than they were earlier. The doctor came over and she explained that Yehoshua’s body was acting sick, as if it had an infection. They took blood samples to test if he actually had an infection but it would take 24 hours to receive results. Meanwhile, being that his body was acting like it had an infection, they began giving him antibiotics to fight his infection. But, she added, since he was so premature his body and whole immune system was weak and it did not stand a strong chance of fighting the infection.

Then another doctor told us that he wanted to speak to us. He had a very serious expression on his face. He was Indian and I did not understand most of what he said. A few times I asked him to repeat himself, until I realized it was just not worth it. I would ask someone else afterwards to explain the situation to me in detail. However, there was one clear message which I did understand from this doctor – and that was that he was warning us that he felt there was an extremely good chance that the baby would not make it.

I constantly repeated to myself that anything could happen and that G-d does what is best for us and the best thing is that my baby will make it. Thoughts of despair engulfed my brain but I fought hard to repel them. I knew that regardless of what any doctor said, G-d could save my baby.

After staying at the baby’s bedside trying to say tehillim we realized that we needed to take a break and leave the hospital. We went home to my in-laws house where we grabbed a bite to eat. I collapsed on a couch and fell asleep, almost unconscious, for about an hour. I woke up in a daze. I forced myself to get up. Someone had to go back to the hospital to check up on the baby and at that point no one else was up to it. I had to be a man. I dragged myself to my car and drove back to the hospital. I arrived and they told me basically that though he had a very slight improvement, nothing changed considerably. I sat there in desperation, trying once again to say a few perakim of tehillim. I stayed until I told myself I had to take care of myself and if I stayed any longer I would not be able to function. Staying in the hospital would not help anyone at present, and it would not help me function well the next day either. Assuming the baby’s situation would remain the same over night, I would need all the strength I could save for the next day.

I arrived home and told my wife the same; that we had nothing to gain by staying awake and we should go to sleep to get strength for tomorrow. I collapsed into bed, all the while telling myself that G-d willing everything will be ok tomorrow. I fell into a fitful sleep. I woke up a few hours later at about 1:00 in the morning. With my son’s precarious situation taking over my thoughts, I decided to call the hospital to see how he was doing.

What I heard on that phone call changed darkness into light! They told me that his breathing took a change for the good and suddenly his breathing had suddenly begun to improve. They said during the night they saw that they had no solutions of what to do to save him, and they decided to try to switch the type of ventilator which he was on (from a “Conventional  Vent” to a ‘Jet Vent”)as a last resort maybe that would help. Not that they expected it to do anything, but they had nothing left to try. For some unexplainable reason, his lungs reacted better to this new ventilator and his breathing improved!! By the next morning his breathing made a world of improvement since the night before!!

Immediately, after, I called my twin brother, Avrohom Eliezer, whom I am extremely close to, to tell him the good news! I was so excited!

One cannot imagine the relief which we felt when we heard that news in the middle of the night! I went back to bed with a heart flying in the sky and a brain overwhelmed with emotion! We felt as if we had regained our own lung function over-night, and now we were finally able to breathe fully!

G-d decided to heal Yehoshua and that’s exactly what G-d did!

3)      After Yehoshua was in the NICU for several weeks the medical team noticed that he seemed to be hypoglycemic. This means that too often his sugar level was dropping dangerously low. They suspected that he had a sugar-intolerance and when he had sugar it created a reaction that caused his sugar level to drop. They told us that they could perform a test to double check if what they feared was true; however at this age there was no test which they can do which would be an absolute confirmation. They performed the test. They gave him a drop of sugar and immediately his sugar-level dropped. They told us that although it’s still not for sure, to the extent of their medical knowledge the test confirmed their suspicions. A few days later the doctor, matter of factly, let us know that there was always the possibility of all of this changing once he grew older.

If one thinks about this, the ramifications are astounding. If the medical team was correct that he was hypoglycemic and not tolerating sugar, that meant very possibly that he would not be able to have any sugar at all. Many processed foods have sugar; even foods such as canned vegetables have sugars in them. Plus, n addition to all of the other issues which Yehoshua had, now they would have to be careful any time they gave him any medication to make sure that they didn’t contain any sugar. Even worse, once he came home we would have to be so extra careful not bring any sugar whatsoever in to the house. So many foods have sugar in them, we would literally have to change our lives and our home upside down.

We were extremely concerned over this. I tried to constantly emphasize to myself that the doctors said clearly that the test which they did was not %100. Additionally, the doctor told us that as he gets older the sugar issue may go away.

Meanwhile the hospital treated him as if he had this sugar intolerance; every medicine he needed had to be discussed and researched to make sure it didn’t have sugar.

As we had to deal with more pressing immediate issues, I tried to put this issue on the back burner; hoping that the doctors words would come true. As he gets older his sugar-intolerance would go away.

Months passed. Miraculously, every medicine or food which Yehoshua needed was attainable in a form which was fructose free; or an alternative was found. But the huge miracle was yet to come.

Fast forward almost a year. The team decided to re-test him to see if he was still hypoglycemic and couldn’t tolerate sugar. They performed the same test which they had performed previously at the beginning of the year – and he didn’t react to the sugar which they gave him! His sugar level stayed the same! They added more sugar to the dose, and gave it to him a few more times, yet a few hours later he still had not reacted. This seemed to show that he was no longer sugar-intolerant! They performed another test the next day and again it showed that he was no longer sugar-intolerant!

We were overjoyed; we couldn’t believe our ears!

One of our deepest fears disappeared in an instant! “Hashem gozer umikayaim”! G-d decided that Yehoshua should not be sugar-intolerant. And Yehoshua is not sugar intolerant!

 

4)      Finally, after months of waiting, the magical words were heard. The doctor said that Yehoshua should be ready to go home in a few weeks. We were overjoyed. The words we were so, so longing to hear had been spoken.

Unfortunately the excitement was short lived. A few days later we received a phone call from the hospital telling us that Yehoshua’s situation had changed for the worst. We rushed to the hospital. We found a team of doctors and nurses surrounding our dear child. We tried to find out exactly what happened but the medical team was too busy focusing on Yehoshua to answer our questions. Finally the team began to slowly leave Yehoshua’s room and then one of the doctors was able to answer our worried questions. The good news was that Yehoshua’s situation was stable. However his breathing had worsened considerably. Additionally, the girth of his stomach was larger than it should be, and was slowly growing larger. The medical team was at a loss to explain the source for these issues.

To make a long story short; over the next few days Yehoshua’s condition continued to worsen. His respiratory status gradually declined. And his midsection continued slowly growing.

 The team finally concluded that his midsection was filling with fluid. Yet they still had no idea what the fluid was and where it was coming from. After taking many x-ray’s they saw that besides for Yehoshua’s abdomen filling with fluid, his chest was filling with fluid as well. The situation went from being very serious to being – very very serious!  Finally the team decided, as risky as it was, they had no choice but to insert 2 tubes, one into Yehoshua’s chest and one into his abdomen to try to drain the fluid out. So now they had the fluid draining out but still no idea what it was coming from.

The medical team spoke to more doctors and still they could not come up with an idea of what this fluid was. Finally, after researching, they found one possible option of what the fluid was. They were still not sure, but this was the best idea they were able to come up with.

We were told that there was really only one option left to deal with the fluid. The doctors told us that the fluid was leaking from part of the body which was near Yehoshua’s vital organs. In order to stop the fluids, surgery would need to be done in which the surgeon would need to clamp down whatever was leaking. But the surgeon wasn’t even sure of the exact place he needed to clamp down. He would have to find it during the surgery. Distraught, we were told that the risk of this surgery was similar to that of brain surgery and that for a healthy child the success rate was 50%. But for our child it was even less, being that he was already in a life threatening state. Meanwhile, Yehoshua’s breathing was worsening and his girth continued to grow.

We had to make a decision. We decided we would tell the surgeon not to perform the surgery until he felt he absolutely had to. The surgeon agreed that they could wait another 3 days. This gave us three days to come up with our decision.

We had been through so much with our dear child Yehoshua. And he finally seemed to be on his way out and then this came crashing down in our faces. We were almost totally overwhelmed. Our minds flew almost entirely out of our control. What was going to be?! After everything we had already experienced, this threatened to force us to give up hope.

Struggling to maintain a slight ray of hope we consulted in more specialists and also Rabbonim to help us decide what to do. I attempted to fortify myself and tell myself that there was always the %50 chance that Yehoshua would survive the procedure. G-d could do anything. But after the siege of attacks which my support-tower had been hit with, my resolve was weakening. I thought to myself, G-d has gotten us through so many other predicaments. He will get us through this as well. But then another voice crept in to my head telling me that this time the chances of hope were too slim. At the end the voices in my head left me struggling to grab onto the hope that Yehoshua would indeed survive. However previous times I believed in it strongly, as I had reasons to support my belief that there were considerable chances that all would be well. But this time I struggled to fully believe it with all my heart. The procedure was so incredibly risky. And it seemed that there was no way to avoid the procedure. I told myself that I knew that G-d got me out of trouble before; but how would He get me out this time!!?

Then G-d decided to plant an idea into one of the surgeons’ heads. One of the surgeons decided to do one last test to see if their conclusion of what the fluid was, was correct. They had actually already previously performed this test and results showed that their diagnosis was correct; the source for the fluid was as they thought and that they had no choice but to go through with the surgery. But the surgeon “decided” to re-do the test again.

His idea was that Yehoshua was getting nutrients and vitamins through an IV tube. Maybe the tube had a leak and the same fluids that they were pouring into the IV tube were the fluids which were filling up his body!

We could not wait to hear what the findings were about these tests. The head doctors and the surgeon called us to a meeting. They described the test which they had performed on the IV tube. They checked the amount and type of the fluids which they were putting in to the IV tube, and the same amount and type of fluids which were draining out of the tube into Yehoshua’s body corresponded to what they were putting in! This showed that the fluids were actually coming from the IV tube itself. Those same fluids which they put in to the tube were coming out into Yehoshua’s body! They said that they needed to do more testing, however it seemed quite clear that the fluid was not what they originally thought it was, requiring the risky, life-threatening surgery, rather the fluids in fact were leaking from a faulty IV tube!!! If this was the case, the whole surgery would be completely unnecessary!!

The doctors did further follow up testing and they concluded that the new theory was correct! The fluids were from the IV tube! They didn’t need to perform surgery. We felt as if we had gone through techiyas hameisim! Yehoshua and us, his parents, were given a new lease on life! He didn’t need the terrible, risky, life-threatening surgery! Finally we were able to breathe a bit once again.

And this was G-d’s answer to me! The whole prognosis which the doctors were saying was totally and utterly wrong! Yehoshua didn’t need the surgery! The fluid was not coming from a leak in Yehoshua’s body near his vital organs, the leak was coming from the IV line!! G-d had no problem finding a solution!

In closing:

I had the following thought as I was saying “Al Hanisim” tonight. I could change the story line of “Al Hanisim” a bit and our miraculous story with Yehoshua would fit right in.

“Biymei Shmuel Tzvi, Nechama, and Yehoshua Adler B’New York K’she’amad Aleihem Ha’Teva V’Harofim, Bikesh L’hagid She’yehyeh Harbeh Ba’ayot Briyot Im Yehoshua Adler B’21 Adar. V’atta B’Rachamecha Harabim Ha’Farta Es Atzasom …”

“During the days of Shmuel Tzvi, Nechama,a nd Yehoshua Adler in New York; when the doctors and nature arose, they predicted and said that there will be many health issues for Yehoshua Adler beginning from the 21^st day of the month of Adar; But You G-d in Your abundant mercy abolished their predictions and prognosis’ … “

… and You have watched over Yehoshua to sustain him and give him health for so long!

  May G-d continue to watch over Yehoshua with the rest of Klal Yisrael!

L’zchus Refua Sheleima Yehoshua Ben Nechama Aliza; L’iluy Nishmas Chaim Pinchos ben Yaakov Yitzchok