After an exciting week of church camp, the cars and buses carrying children, youth, and sponsors dispersed to find their way back home to whatever part of Bulgaria that they called home. One car load carrying a Bulgarian pastor, his two sons, and two American summer volunteers were only 40 kilometers from Razgrad (a town in NE Bulgaria) when they had a horrible accident. The driver of the other car was killed and it’s passengers injured. Of those in ‘our’ car, the pastor and his youngest son were bruised and banged up, one American suffered a hip location and another broken fingers, but Misho (the oldest son of the pastor) faired the worst.
Misho had been asleep and wasn’t wearing a seat belt. His forehead came into direct contact with the framework of the car and he essentially ended up with a dent in the lower part of his forehead. The bones between his eyebrows and all the lower part of his forehead cave inward. In addition, his forehead split open and his lip was busted almost to his chin. In the hospital they patched him up, told he was fine and that he should go home. Misho kept telling his mom, “Mom, I’ve got a hole in my head.” He cried about his lip and said repeatedly, “I’ll never get to play again.” He was referring to the saxophone which he plays along with the guitar and the drums. His family and concerned church friends took him to another hospital and eventually to Varna (the 2nd largest city in Varna). After some time in a Varna hospital and after stabilizing, they sent him home.
Once at home, cerebral fluid began to seep again out of Misho’s nose and his headaches, which he had had before, reappeared. His mother decided that they should take him to Sofia (reported to have the best medical care in Bulgaria.). They rode the bus for 5 1/2 hours to get to Sofia and went directly to the University Medical Center where they put a drainage tube in his spine that drew the fluid off his brain relieving the pressure and the headaches. The doctors said that if they could get the drainage to stop in 4 days they would remove the tube and if he had no further seepage, he wouldn’t need an operation. After day 6 Misho’s nose was still running.
At that point, the doctors declared that Misho would need two operations: the first to repair the holes in the cerebral membrane that separates the skull from the brain and the second to repair the broken bones between his eyes and in the forehead that are putting pressure on the brain. On day 7, they had to remove the spinal drainage tube and waited to see if there would be more seepage from his nose. When there wasn’t, the doctors hoped that we could get by with just the second operation.
On 17 September, they opened up Misho’s forehead. In removing the bones on his forehead, the cerebral membrane opened up and showed that there were two holes. After spending considerable time repairing the membrane, the surgeons moved on to reconstructing his forehead. They did the all of the work necessary. They were concerned that they had possibly been unable to completely even out his forehead but he’s healed up just fine. When he woke up, he said, “Mom, I love you!” His mother has never been happier than to know that Misho hadn’t lost his memory or suffered brain damage. It’s really a miracle that Misho doesn’t have any brain damage. After the accident initially happened he was without vision in one eye that eventually came back and he’s exactly like the Misho before the accident.
On 30 September, Misho was released from the hospital and after a night’s stay in Sofia, he travelled home to Razgrad. In a couple of weeks he returned to school. His mom had to return to work immediately since Misho’s father has been layed off from the glass factory.
God did miracle after miracle in the whole situation. The money for the operation was raised by the generosity mainly of the Bulgarian people and with help from abroad. The family raised $1,474, the Bulgarian people raised $2,954, and people from abroad gave $1,730. This all happened in a very short amount of time.
The surgeons say that from scans done in February 2012, Misho doesn’t need to have a second surgery – with regards to his brain. If they choose, he could have an operation to repair the scarring that he has on the left corner of his mouth, his forehead, and at his hairline (the later being from the first surgery).
Thank you for your prayers and help for Misho, Tanya, and the entire family. God bless you!
