Remembering Ryan

Sunday February 3, 2008 started off as a quiet ordinary day. That all changed in an instant when the phone rang and a voice at the other end asked "Are you Ryan's Mom?" Immediately a red flag went up. He proceded to tell me that Ryan had an accident on the ski slope and 'it's not good'. The caller was one of Ryan's friends. Between him and the rest of the friends they were able to tell me that he was air-lifted to a hospital in Fargo. As we were quickly getting ready to leave another frantic call came from another of his friends with the same information. We had to travel almost 100 miles to get to the hospital and it was the longest ride of my life. When we arrived we were ushered into a room filled with about 10 friends who arrived before we did all visibly shaken. Almost immedialtely a doctor came in to speak with us. He explained the gravity of the situation and told us that he could do surgery but the chances of survival would be 1-3%. Ryan was on life support at this time. Without surgery death was iminent. I remember him saying 'If you are praying people, pray for a miracle for that is all that will help." We grasped at any straw we could and agreed to the surgery. Ryan was snowboarding which was the love of his life and he was very good at it. He was with a group of friends but nobody actually saw the accident. We can only guess that somehow he fell and sustained a traumatic head injury. He never regained conciousness. Had he survived he would have had severe brain injury. Our other 4 children were able to get there by Tuesday and spend some time with him. After five days of being on numerous machines, there was no improvment and no blood going to the brain. On Friday, February 8 he was taken off life support. His organs were harvested that morning. I remember him showing me his license and telling me he was a registered donor. He had a kind and giving heart. We were fortunate to have the support of many friends, family, church and Life Source. After 2 1/2 years I still find myself wondering just how it happened. What were his last thoughts? Somehow he had to know we were there for him even if he couldn't talk to us. He was only 4 weeks from his 28th birthday. He will forever be young to us.