“Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny.”

- C.S. Lewis

 

Sunday December 10, 2006 was a cold and cloudy day in Slavic Village, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Cleveland, Ohio.  But that didn’t faze young Treasure Byrge in the slightest.  She was fully engaged in a playdate with her younger sister, Trinity, and their Shetland Sheepdog, Wishbone.  Their mother, Carol brought in some rocks from the backyard for them to paint.  Treasure was the picture of health.  She had enjoyed celebrating her 10th birthday the week before with her family and classmates from school. 

 

But things would take a drastic change the following day.  It began routinely, when Carol dropped Treasure off at Saint Stanislaus School, where she was in the fourth grade.  Treasure was perfectly well, her usual chipper, jovial self.  She had never really been sick before.  But as the morning went on, things took a turn for he worse.  Treasure began feeling dizzy.   At about 10 am when she was in the locker room suiting up for gym class she developed the sudden onset of a severe progressive thunderbolt headache.  As she was walking into the gym, a teacher saw she was pale and wobbly and took her into the bathroom, where she had repeated bouts of dry heaves.

 

The school had called Carol earlier in the morning and asked her to come pick up her daughter and bring her home because she appreared ill.  Shortly after that Treasure collapsed on the gym floor and became unresponsive.  Carol hurried to the school and was surprised to see an ambulance and fire truck in front of the building.  She became terrified when she saw two emergency medical technicians (EMTs) wheeling Treasure out on a gurney, pale and unconscious. 

 

They rushed her to nearby MetroHealth Medical Center.  Carol left her car at the school and rode with Treasure and the two EMTs in the back of the ambulance.  She remembers the two of them arguing back and forth, one saying that Treasure was in a coma, the other saying she wasn’t.  Then she heard one whisper to the other that maybe they shouldn’t be having this conversation in front of the mother.  But by then, Carol had  already concluded that Treasure had to be in a coma because she wouldn’t open her eyes or move in response to voices....

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