Translated…
In the physical therapy unit of the hospital, came a big boy, of about a little over age twenty. In this ward where the age of the patients are mostly sixty-five and up, he’d become the center of everybody’s attention.
His name is “Dragon”, even though he was bedridden, he’d still had a head of hair, dyed to blonde, plus his features resembled that of a foreigner, as he’d checked into the hospital, the nurses became intrigued about him, “Are you biracial?”, he’d smiled, as he’d denied that he is.
The car accident at the start of this year had changed his life completely. Dragon, on the way to work, was HIT by a car, he’d lost consciousness, was lifted to the E.R. of a nearby hospital: the doctor gave him a CT scan immediately, and found that there’s a fracture on his fourth rib, with his lungs, bleeding and multiple organs inside of his abdomen bleeding too. After the tracheotomy, they’d performed an emergent operation, then, sent him into the ICU for further treatments.
After staying in the ICU for almost a month Dragon finally woke up. When he’d opened up his eyes again, he’d found his father, his mother, and younger sister, as well as this world, to be different, as well as his life was altered too—the heavens played a cruel joke on him, the damages from the car wreck, as well as the vertebrates of his thoracic area had caused him to have spinal injuries, causing his legs to become paralyzed.
A few months passed, he’d gone to the rehabilitation unit of various hospitals to get his treatments, every day and every night, he’d worked hard, followed the words of the doctors’, practicing what was once taken for granted and easy, sitting up in bed, flipping over to his back, and moving around, had become extremely difficult for him now.
“If I’m Dragon, how will I face it?” How, will I deal with this sudden change in my life? I probably won’t be as optimistic as Dragon is now, worked hard, to follow all the doctor’s rehabilitation and treatment plans.
I asked him what his interests were in the past? He’d lightly explained, “I couldn’t do that anymore.” His interest is playing tennis, he’d wanted to step onto the court, and sweating it out, he can only have it, in his dreams now.
“Dragon, let’s practice sitting up now.” He’d used ALL of his energy, sat up on the bed, and, I’d discovered, that there was a bald spot, on his head of gold now. The records showed, that Dragon never had any brain complications, I’d asked him again, “Did you have surgery on your brain? There’s a bald spot on your head.”
He’d replied, “No, I’d never had surgery, it’d become like that since the accident.”, this, is what happens, when one undergoes great deal of stress, or had gone through some form of traumatic events in one’s life.
As I walked out of his hospital ward, I’d recalled a line all of a sudden, “If you have nothing but son in your lives, your lives would’ve turned into the deserts by now.” There are so many trials in life, and, one can’t always face the sun, and there must be rain and wind too, to balance it all out. Behind Dragon’s sunny smiles, how much he must’ve needed to overcome? Who is able to accept the fact, that one had become paralyzed from the waist down overnight? For a kid in his twenties, this, is truly, amazing.
And so, this, is how a young man CHOSE to deal with the trial of his life, he refused to get beaten, and, it’s because of his positive attitude, his unwillingness to give up on his own life, that’s made him so strong.
Life, the Obstacle Course 