UPDATE On Brantley Bradley

Rickey Stokes

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Posted by: RStokes
[email protected]
334-790-1729
Date: May 14 2020 2:08 AM

BIRMINGHAM: What a world wind of a week. But this week, I have learned to lean on GOD, how important PRAYER is, people's messages, and how helpless we are.

My life work has been solving problems. But there is absolutely nothing that PAW PAW can do for Brantley, except PRAY.

PRAY that GOD has led us to the right place, to people we do not know and know nothing about, who has the GOD given talents and wisdom to treat and repair Brantley's medical issues.

Other than that, we are all helpless in fixing the problem. Brantley Kade Brantley is 100% in GOD'S HANDS. And at 7 AM surgery will begin.

When his mom Emily called me Sunday night, my call was to Dr. Fred Pich, Emergency Room Doctor, Southeast Health. After seeing pictures and hearing details Dr. Pich said get him here. We were on the emergency room dock with Brantley throwing up. Dr. Pich ran out, took Brantley but I had to wait outside.

Shortly thereafter Dr. Pich told me he was contacting Children's Hospital. I told him to treat Brantley as if he was his and we were ok with any decision he made. In a few short minutes Dr. Pich said meet the helicopter at the helipad, Survival Flight was on it's way and Mark Reynolds was the Nurse Medic on the helicopter.

My relationship with Dr. Pich and Mark Reynolds goes back decades. Both were in my wedding with Mark Reynolds being best man. I knew Brantley was in good hands.

On Wednesday the Neuro Surgeon told us that Dr. Pich's quick diagnosis and actions is why Brantley is alive today.

While I did not know at the time how close Brantley was to death, since Sunday three people have been on my mind and they have played a tremendous influence on my attitude towards Brantley. Hopefully they do not mind me sharing, but David, Mitzi and Dylan Hasty went through more than 5 years of helpless moments with their dear child and sister Morgan. Their faith, their attitude, has helped me walk this walk. I am not comparing in any way our walk to their's, but they have been a major influence on my life throughout this week. I thank GOD for knowing these three and know you can not find three better people then David, Mitzi and Dylan.

We fix problems. But are helpless in this problem. And all we can do is through faith lean on GOD to guide out path.

Please pray for Brantley. Pray for these doctors, nurses and support team. Please pray for Emily ( Brantley's mom ), Mike ( Brantley's dad ) and Josh ( Brantley's step dad ) tomorrow and the extended family. Josh mom, Kay, and sister and brother in law, Jason and Stephanie, some of the finest people.

THANKS for all of your prayers, text messages, acts of kindsness.

PICTURES: The first was Sunday night, then Monday at Children's to late this afternoon.

FROM EMILY EARLIER TODAY:

Good morning everyone! We talked with the neuro doctors this morning. And this is what he said and some of the questions he answered. I’m copying from what I put in a txt message to family. Please continue prayers for Brantley and our family. I’m so proud of my brave little boy. I am so happy to see him smiling. Thank you Jesus for saving my little boy!

So, this morning Dr.Ericson was making his rounds and cake by and answered some questions for us.

Dr.Ruzell (not sure of spelling) is going to be doing Brantleys surgery.

He said side effects should be very minimal if he does have any.

They said chances of this happening again is very unlikely once they repair it.

They are unsure of recovery time. It all depends on the fluid draining. There is a chance Brantley will have to have another surgery to put a shunt in.

They are very hopeful for no future surgeries.

They will not have to use any mesh, tissues, etc to replace the piece of spine they are removing. They said it won't be noticeable

They said Brantley will get back to his normal self with no limitations.

They said it's not uncommon for someone with a genetic disorder to develop Chiari 1 malformation and hydrocephalus, that he could have had this his whole life. He said that he could have had either one to start with and then the other developed. They believe he had Chiari 1 malformation and then over time he developed Hydrocephalus.
But this is treatable.

They are very happy we got here when we did. We are waiting for him to hopefully eat or drink something.
We have to do the swallow study to see if he's awake enough to eat or drink they don't want it going to his lungs. They said if so that's gonna be more problems.

Now, I am thanking God, sitting here crying just in Awe about how great God is. If Dr. Pich would not have told us to bring him in when we did to get the cat scan I would not have my baby. This could have been fatal.
So y'all send a praise prayer that dr. Pich helped save my baby!

Edited to add: we are going for a swallow study at 9:00AM to determine if he can eat and drink something.

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