Finding Strength in Times of Weakness

A Dose of Reality…

This article is a mixture of lessons. It is just as much a call to gratitude as it is a lesson in strength. It is the story of a hero and it is a call to repentance. Repentance for complaining more than we recognize our blessings. Repentance for our inability to STAND through the rough times because it just seems too hard. The lesson comes from the life of a 24 year old girl…not much more than a teenager. Her strength in the face of difficulty should be a challenge to us all….

Life often doesn’t go as planned. That is the understatement of the century for Cory and Dorothy Simons. High School sweethearts with a beautiful son, another on the way and their entire lives before them; then August 14, 2009 happened. Here is their story in Dorothy’s own words:

Cory was on his way home from work on Rossville Blvd in Chattanooga, Tennessee. I had just gotten off the phone with him. It was August the 14th then. When I woke up an hour later (on August the 15, our 5 year anniversary) and realized he wasn’t home, I freaked out. He wasn’t answering his phone so I finally called 911 to ask if my car had been in a wreck. They said they would run a scan and call me back, but when I hadn’t heard from them after 30 min I decided to go look for myself. I figured if anything major had happened he would be at the hospital, so that was the first place I went.

Before entering the hospital I told some officers about my call to 911 and before I even finished my sentence they knew my name and who I was there for. Apparently my phone number had gotten mixed up in all the translation. For about an hour they couldn’t tell me what was going on or what had happened. All I knew was that my husband was in the ER and they were running tests on him. The doctors didn’t expect him to last through the morning. They even gave me his wedding ring because he was so swollen…But he did last.

Then they didn’t expect him to last the next couple days…but he did. What we believe happened was that Cory’s heart disease (Transposition of the Greater Arteries) caused him to have a fib of the heart (in which the heart stops beating and starts shaking). This caused his lungs to fill up, which caused a lack of oxygen to his brain, which led to him to passing out while behind the wheel. Cory ran off the road, hitting a telephone poll head on. He went roughly 30 min. before they were able to bring his heart back to a beat. Even after that they had to resuscitate him 3 more times. He has been in a coma since and is currently on a ventilator and a feeding tube. Originally, he was in the Trauma ICU for about 4 weeks, then he was moved to the Intermediate ICU for about a week and a half. He was then released to a rehab center. He spent less than 24 hours at the rehab center and was transported back to the ER and admitted into the Medical ICU where he currently is. He was running a temperature of 106, a heart rate around 150, and a breathing rate around 80. Now his temp fluctuates around 101-104, his heart rate around 90, and his breathing rate around 40-60.

Due to the accident he now has 14 more scars, aside from the 3 or so he already had from open heart surgery when he was 2, from all the incisions they have had to make on him. They believe he now has an infection somewhere in his body and have been running all sorts of test to figure out where. Monday morning before he went to the rehab center he was tracking me with his eyes and answering my questions with blinks, he even tried moving his hand but only his pinkie on his left hand was able to move. I believe he is still trying to track us when we are in the room with him.

On August 25, Dorothy gave birth to her and Cory’s second son while Cory lay in the same hospital, still fighting to come out of the coma. Dorothy has publicly placed her entire story and updates on Cory’s recovery on a Facebook Page called, “Praying for Cory.” I learned of the story from my local radio station. As I poured over the entries on the Facebook Page, I realized that it is not a story I will soon forget.

Not once in all of the day-to-day struggles of her husband’s trauma, caring for a four year old alone, and giving birth to her new son does Dorothy question God’s grace. I’ve seen individuals shake their fist at God for far less difficult trials. When questioned in a direct email, Dorothy only says…”I can’t go all freaky. I can’t break. I have to be there for my boys.”

And that she is. As the season of gratitude and thanksgiving quickly approaches– and as we join together in prayer for Cory’s complete recovery, I am amazed at the peace and assurance that God can bring in the midst of the storms of life.

I’ve heard people say, “If Christianity is real…then where are the examples? Where are the people who make it when the rug is pulled out from under them?” They may not be on television and they may not preach from a platform…but they are found in people like Dorothy. If Jesus were standing in front of her, He would undoubtedly say to Dorothy as he said to the centurion, “Truly I say to you, I have not found so great a faith, not in Israel.” Matthew 8:10

Let God speak to you through this story today. Let it be an example of faith, a light in a dark world, and an anchor in the storm. And please pray for Cory and Dorothy. God is going to do something amazing.

October 13: As an update. Cory is still in what they call a “vigil coma” or “persistent vegetative state,” but he is more alert and responsive every day. They are working on him now to get him off the ventilator. He breathed on his own for 2 hours the other day and they are going to try it for 4 hours today. They also told me to bring him some sweat clothes because fully awake or not they are going to start making him walk!

Dorothy ended her note to me by saying that she never expected to be anyone’s hero and she doesn’t view herself that way. And then with the same simple display of strength and faith that cuts through all of the forces of hell, her final sentence said, “All I can do is the best I can do and I have to trust God will take care of the rest.”

What kind of world would this be if we all “simply believed.”

Thank you for sharing your story Dorothy. Thank you God, for letting us find warriors in unexpected places.