The case of Donald Herbert, the Buffalo, New York firefighter, thought to be brain-damaged and utterly unresponsive for most of the past ten years, should teach us all a few things.
Whether Mr. Herbert, about whose recovery doctors are cautiously optimistic, will remain or progress in his miraculously awakened state, his sudden communicativeness that began on Saturday demonstrates that we can ill-afford to be so flippant about taking the lives of those diagnosed as being brain-damaged.
The cases of Herbert and of Terri Schiavo are undoubtedly different in many particulars. Yet, for nine-and-a-half years, Herbert sat perched in front of a TV set, unable to speak and seemingly oblivious to the world around him.
On Saturday, he spent fourteen hours becoming reacquainted with family and friends from whom he originally assumed he'd been absent only three months.
The only conclusions I can draw are that we're not as smart as we think we are and our lives rightly belong in the hands of God! After all, we can't tell what amazing surprises God may have up His sleeve.
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