Her miracle - A little sister who passed help forward

Her miracle
A little sister who passed help forward

By Courtney Lynn Chapman
December 9, 2009

My 5-year-old sister suddenly got ill. She was vomiting blood. She was so ill that my amazing mother took her to the Winchester Medical Center Pediatric clinic to be checked out.

They admitted her to the hospital because she was dehydrated. No one had a clue what was wrong with her. She was a very miserable sight to see, and it was very hard to see her the way she was. She lay there in the hospital bed so helpless she couldn’t even carry her tiny self to the bathroom.

They ran many tests on her, but still had no answers to our questions about what could be wrong with her. She was there for three days, and took a turn for the worse when that Saturday came.

The bacteria causing her illness moved to her kidneys. When it came to this, the Winchester Medical Center could not handle it anymore. Our very supportive family all jumped in their cars and headed down to Charlottesville where my sister was being taken. When we all arrived there, she was in PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). Her case was severe. More tests were run, and we then found out she had E Coli — and it went straight to her kidneys. It is rare for that to happen, but it did.

Days passed and she wasn’t getting better. Many people were praying for this little girl, and thank God they did. She was put on a dialysis machine to function her kidneys. Slowly a month passed and she came back to the same silly little girl that she once was — except now she has a tube in her belly just in case she has to be put on a dialysis machine again.

She is home now, but we are still waiting for her kidneys to be fully functioning. She is my miracle. Not only is she my miracle, but she is one to many others, too.

Long before she was put in the hospital, she saved the soda-pop tabs that you can break off. She was about 4 years old and knew that they helped save people’s lives. She didn't know that they got people minutes on a dialysis machine. I mean to tell you that this little girl saved all of those tabs she got her hands on. She saved them to help someone. Little did we know she would need the help.

That little girl proved to me that miracles do happen. You just have to believe.

I also want to say that if there was an award for best parents, mine would win. They stood by my sister no matter what. They were there day and night for the entire month she was in the hospital. They are the best anyone could ask for, and I wouldn’t change that at all. God bless everyone and thank you for your prayers.

Courtney Lynn Chapman, 17, is a resident of Winchester.