From: SaxNviolin@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2002 11:24 PM
To: rwardlow@cortnet.com
Subject: russell's recovery

Hi guys.  Tough holiday season for you, but I'm thankful Russ is even here, 
after this horrendous accident.  Susy and I just caught the end of a 
Discovery program amazingly similar to Russ' situation.  A young man named  
Chris (he even looked like Russ!) suffered a bad brain trauma, and had a 
tremendous amount of fluid in the lungs.  Doctors feared the lack of oxygen 
and trauma was too much for his brain to recover from,  even though he 
survived his accident (he was riding in the back of a friend's pickup, and 
was thrown).  It took weeks for Chris to squeeze his mom's hand, but things 
started looking up from there.  He responded slowly, as Russ is with slight 
arm and finger movements.  We only caught  a couple of minutes of the show, 
but I'm sure that part alone took weeks! They only showed brief parts of his 
therapy, and the recovery, but I think it was almost a year before he left 
the hospital.
They interviewed him on the program, and he constantly cited the fact that 
his friends and family constantly being there telling him he could do it, and 
he'd be fine, are what pulled him through!  It's almost like you guys know 
exactly what to do!  I admire your strength through all this, and I think 
that's exactly what he'll need for the next 6-8 months.  I don't even know 
him very well, but I get the impression he takes challenges head on, and 
he'll be ready for this one.  Keep up the good work with his favorite music,  
and the phone messages, and encouragment.  No need to put this email on the 
site, I'm sure you have enough to do.  I'm going to go to DiscoveryHealth to 
see if they will have a copy of the show I saw on transcript.  This holiday 
we'll be thankful for the small improvements Russ is making, and let's look 
forward to next year's holiday celebration being back to business as usual. 
Our thoughts are with Russ and your family today.  John & Susy.