Several hours ago I received the following text message from Marie Bonifacio:
Joe is now sitting up and eating on his own. Later he will try standing up. The bandages have been taken off. He has 37 staples in his head. We’ll be out of ICU hopefully by tomorrow. God has been amazing and has given us open doors to pray for others here. Thanks for all your prayers. Joseph is really touched and so are we.
Joey and Marie have practically been living in the Medical City ICU since Joseph’s accident on Monday. Here’s my version of the story.
“Dad, we are at the emergency room . . .” It is amazing how many scenarios the mind can conjure up in less than one second when a parent hears these words.
“Joe hurt his head.” What? How? How bad? Anyone else hurt? Which hospital? Two dozen more questions in two seconds.
“We were jumping off a bench at the basketball courts, taking pictures of each other dunking. On Joe’s last dunk, his feet swung out and his hands slipped and he landed headfirst on the concrete. It was real bad. He was not moving. Josh ran to his house, grabbed the keys and we took him to the hospital.”
The neurosurgeon quickly went to work. He was not in a panic, but he seemed to be in a hurry. Later we heard that if the brain surgery had been 45 minutes later there could have been some serious brain damage, even death.
Joe now has 37 staples and several plates inside his head and no hair on top of his head, but he has all his memory and is expected to fully recover. He has probably dunked for the last time.
After the surgery and a few hours of recovery, Joe’s first question was whether he would be able to teach his ENLI discipleship class on Saturday.
Watching Joey and Marie go through this was a living faith lesson for me. I don’t think I would have handled it with as much grace and faith as they did. They have officially been elevated to superhero status.
Please continue to pray for Joe until he is back teaching at ENLI.
