Your True Tales
November 2004 – Page 26

One Life for Another
by Sharon

My dad has been sick for a long time. August 19, 2004, my dad was taken by rescue and admitted to St. Joseph's Medical Center in Reading, Pennsylvania. My mom spoke to my oldest brother Bobby (37) on the phone and told him she was "scared of losing him." Bobby told her, "Mom, don't worry. Everything will be fine. I love you and I will be up the hospital tomorrow."

On that morning, my dad had a terrible night and had another mild heart attack. We were scared. We felt that it was toward the end. My mom and I waited patiently in the patient lobby. My dad went in around 8:15 a.m. It was only supposed to be for one hour (9:30 a.m.). 10:00 a.m. came around and we were very uneasy and scared. Every patient that came out had bad news, and a priest was seen giving Last Rites to a few patients – including my dad!

Finally, around 11:30, my dad came out. He would need triple bypass surgery, they told us. Not being allowed to use cell phones in the hospital, I went outside to notify my five brothers of the news. When I turned my cell phone on, a lot of missed calls were showing up. I just assumed everyone wanted to know about my dad.

The first number I accidentally hit was my brother Bobby's house. His 12-year-old daughter answered the phone and said, "Aunt Sharon, my dad was in an accident. I am here with my little brother (Bobby, Jr.) waiting for my mom to call me from the hospital"!

I was so upset. I called my other brother to see if he knew anything on Bobby's condition. My brother answered the phone screaming at me that my brother was dead! I completely freaked out and could NOT believe what I was hearing! I had to go back in the hospital to tell my mom she just lost her oldest son! I had to call my aunt to come up because I was so upset I could NOT go in the hospital alone to tell my mom.

My aunt came up and my mom knew right away that something was wrong. My aunt told her. My mom wanted to know what happened and we told her that Bobby was working on a commercial A.C unit and he accidentally grounded himself to the AC unit. (We still do not know what really happened; an investigation is still going on.)

He was killed instantly. He went into cardiac arrest and he died around 10:00 a.m. My mom told us she was watching the news in the patient lobby, and the news reported that a young man was in an accident downtown Philadelphia while working on an AC unit. She cried and said, "I saw Bobby's face flash before me, and I got the chills up my spine. I told the lady sitting here with me that my son does that kind of work!"

Sadly, we could not tell my dad. The doctor said his heart could not handle that – it would kill him. The doctor decided to do plan B: instead of triple bypass, he would do the "balloon method" – enough to pull him through to make it to Bobby's funeral and for us to give him the sad news.

The next day, around 10:00 a.m., my dad was taken into surgery. He would be out in an hour. Around 12:00 we had that uneasy feeling again, since we did not know what was going on. A storm started. All of a sudden, LIGHTNING hit the hospital! The power actually went out for a few seconds... then the same thing happened again! Doctors and nurses were saying that this had never happened in all their years!

Finally, the storm passed and my dad came out of surgery and was put in ICU. Later that day, he told us that the power actually went out during his surgery. (We did not tell him that we knew that!) The doctor later came in and talked with us. He told us that my dad actually had a heart attack on the table and they almost lost him. The power going out like that was very odd; the generators did not kick on. The doctor told us that was an "odd experience."

We believe that my brother somehow took my dad's place. Sadly, that week we attended Bobby's funeral. He LOVED the Philadelphia Eagles, and a lot of Eagles items were placed in his casket. He always wanted the Eagles to go to the Superbowl, and so far THIS IS THE BEST SEASON that they had!

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