When Marvin was 12 years old, we were a normal family, a single father raising Marvin and his three older sisters. Marvin was a typical boy, a soccer star who loved sports. On October 27, 2018, our lives changed forever. That morning I found him lying on the bathroom floor, he had difficulty standing and could not support himself. I found a neighbor who helped me get him to the emergency room, by the time we got there the situation was dire, he had to be put on a ventilator. The doctors discovered that Marvin was bleeding from his brain. He had an AVM (arteriovenous malformation) that had ruptured causing an intraventricular hemorrhage and an intraparenchymal hemorrhage.

Marvin was immediately flown by helicopter to another hospital where he underwent complex brain surgery, he had two more surgeries before he was sent to an inpatient rehab. Altogether Marvin spent over two months in the
hospital; before he could come home, he spent weeks in rehab doing physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy. After he came home, we had to care for him for another 3 months before he could go back to school. Our prayers were answered- the doctors have said that Marvin’s recovery was a miracle. He is able to walk and talk and is still our Marvin.

Marvin’s condition will always be there and need to be monitored. Over the last 5 years Marvin has needed intensive follow up, he has been to 6 hospitals, two of them out of state. Most recently we have had to travel to Philadelphia regularly so that he could undergo a series of neuro radiological procedures.

In spite of everything we have been through, we are very grateful. From the time of his first emergency department admission and throughout his time in the hospital and his recovery, our family received an outpouring of support from the community. It seemed like the whole of Flemington was praying for him: our family, our neighbors, his school, our church, even people from other churches visited Marvin in the hospital. We have felt completely cared for in Flemington.

Marvin is the baby of the family, I could not love him more and I get emotional when I think about everything that happened, it is painful to remember and write about. I work very hard taking care of my family, people often ask me for advice, and I tell them they need to pay attention to their children, if I hadn’t been paying attention to Marvin he would have died. Anyone who has had a child who has suffered learns a lot. It taught me to love the people you are with more. People ask what I did to get through it, it wasn’t easy. The illness that my son has is nothing small, it is big and requires ongoing treatment, I will always need to take care of him.

We are grateful to the Shannon Daley Memorial Fund for all that they have done for our family and for all of the other families.

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