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Today is Friday, January 21, 2000. I can hardly believe it's Friday! The week seemed to pass
by very quickly, and I haven't heard any new news about Harold. As I mentioned, I phone my mother
every day, but I am not always able to connect with her. She visits Harold daily, and I did catch
her on Tuesday and she said Harold was still doing well. I will post an update in the next day or
so, when I hear more. I leave you with a prayer request involving a most unfortunate incident here in
New York City. The New York Post covered a very sad story about a 21-year-old who is in a coma because he was an innocent victim of some
others using the highway as a drag racing strip, and while his family was at the emergency/intensive
care unit, their home was broken into. I plan to contact the family today via a letter, and let
them know we're praying for them. This is why I am starting a foundation. I want to be able
to reach out to families like this and help ease their pain in some way. And, maybe there's something
they can do while they are with their son in the hospital. I mean, our country has many, many
intensive care units that are filled to capacity with coma and head injury victims, and the families
often feel helpless as the hours tick away and they sit along-side their loved ones who are hooked
up to all sorts of machines and tubing just to keep them alive. Maybe there is more they can do.
Maybe, with proper education and instruction, they can take a more active role in their loved one's
recovery. That's why I'm assembling a team of doctors and therapists from both western and
alternative medicine, to implement innovative programs and change. Blessings to you today.
Today is Monday, January 17, 2000. I was with Harold for most of the day on Saturday and then had a short visit with him on Sunday. I saw a beautiful piece of art in his room that his high school had made for him. The artist was Brandon Kauffman (I hope I have that name correct) and the depiction was an empty desk, which I believe was meant to be Harold's empty desk, that they are holding for him. It about brought me to tears. It was filled with wonderful well-wishes and prayers that had been hand-written by students and faculty, and when I turned over the picture, the back was also jammed with messages. Thank you all so very, very much! I hadn't been to visit Harold since right after Christmas, so I hadn't seen it before, although I'd heard about it from my mother. Harold has made a lot of progress! I was very pleased. The big news is that he went home on Sunday for a couple of hours! Yes, he went home! He was home for a few hours, he ate pizza, drank some Pepsi and enjoyed a nice visit. His wife Joanne helped in his transport along with two wonderful gentlemen from Harold's church. They took Harold back to Bryn Mawr Sunday evening, it was only a day-pass, but I hear it went great. I found Harold to be making some real progress in that I was in two therapy sessions with him, and in the second one, he enjoyed bouncing a ball back and forth over fifty times. He didn't have these types of motor skills a few weeks ago. Also, he was asked to identify many objects in pictures, and I noticed he seemed to be getting more of them correct than before. Thank you all so very much for all you're doing! More and more folks are visiting this web site who have never met Harold but have heard about the web site or found it using an Internet search engine. I've added a brief story about Harold's situation (on the Home Page) that will hopefully make strangers feel more welcome or more like they know Harold a little better. Welcome one and all! Becoming awakened to the reality of the netherworld of brain injury victims, I have begun a way to give these victims, unable to speak for themselves, a name and a voice. I want to work with their loved ones who now live with a grief that doesn't go away, and I want to assure them that their beloved injured family members will not be forgotten. On the therapeutic side, I also want to help those who are pioneering some alternative methods to treat victims of coma and its aftermath with treatments such as touch therapy, music therapy, herbal medicine, acupressure, massage therapy, Chinese medicine (including acupuncture) and homeopathy. I'm meeting with my attorney and my accountant this week and am making plans to begin a not-for-profit foundation that will benefit coma and head injury victims all over. As of now, I have a couple highly credentialed medical professionals who will be on the board with me, overseeing funds. I will have a full press release up and ready on this site in a week or two that will explain in detail, my vision for the foundation. It will hopefully be a high profile foundation, as I'm working with some high-level New York press agents, that will be very successful in getting more funding for research in this area. You'll hopefully be reading more about it soon, not just here on this web site, but maybe even PEOPLE Magazine! Let's change our world together! Blessings to you all this week. |