Roy Exum
When I got word that due to the COVID pandemic, the 18th annual “Possibilities” Luncheon would be a viral affair, my heart sank all the way to my “nub.” I was in a small crowd when the founding father of the hospital, the sensational Bob Main, told us about his idea almost 20 years ago. Bob, you’ll remember, stood in a brisk wind over 30 years ago when the very first concrete turned onto the job site on East Third Street. I watched his wizard ways as he spent seven days a week – and a lot of nights – to make sure the dreams of the Siskin brothers, “Mr.
Garrison” and “Mr. Mose” – would be fulfilled.
Today, I can find no rehabilitation hospital as its equal in the United States and one reason is the “Possibilities” Luncheon. It has forever been my favorite charity and I celebrate a dozen that come close. But here is where, this coming Tuesday, we will once again celebrate a new class of colossal achievers and the words, “I Can!”
The 18th “Possibilities” Luncheon will center on a true superstar, Katherine Wolf, who came within a hair of losing her life at the prime of her life, suffering a stroke of such magnitude that there was scientifically ‘no way’ she could or would ever rally. On Tuesday, a multitude of Siskin patrons will see with their own eyes why many of the Christian faith believe her life was spared because there are millions of us the Lord above wants to hear tell her story.
The crummy news is that I won't get to see so many of Chattanooga’s greatest people gather in what is a monumental celebration of life, honoring guys like our own Jim Sattler and a beautiful young mother I’m going to tell you about in a minute. I’m still trying to get my nerve up, because it may have been my pals at Siskin have broken the law!
Then again, anyone who squeals will need to immediately go under the witness protection program in a far western state, change your children’s names, take up a new religion, and have your fingerprints surgically removed … just as long as you know before your worst dark side may be tempted by the story I’ll soon reveal.
I stopped the hospital briefly yesterday; we still need to do a little tune-up with my prosthetic. (They say if a bullfrog had wings it would bump his butt … and I ain’t got wings yet “because of Siskin ‘I can!’” My problem is that when my right leg was amputated 15 months ago, it is on the same side as my right arm – and everybody knows it’s “ornamental.”
So I admitted to “Sister Theresa” (the same Teresa Dinger who’s been a spark plug at Siskin for 27 of its 30 years) my deep worries and Teresa started laughing, the same way she did when I was the chairman of the golf tournament years back, when I have cheered the hospital’s every move, and even when I became a camper for three weeks and the ingredients for a nighttime cocktail were discovered under my bed the last day I was there.
“Teresa, this viral thing has me scared to death. You and I were at the table when we found out the real reason for the luncheon, and what the real “possibilities” are. This thing’s got to be a success … when I was in-patient ‘I knew.’ This cannot fail!” So, what’s with my dearest friend? To me it’s not funny … what!
“We’ve still got a little way to go but you know the beauty of this town. You know better than most what Siskin does.” her eyes twinkled. “Roy, right now we are sitting on maybe the most money the luncheon has ever raised. The neat thing the viral site gives us is the ability to stream it from next Tuesday (March 2) all the way until March 15th. That’s pretty special, don’t you think?”
Go back to that small group of 20 years ago, “the dinger” sitting next to be when Bob explained what the “Possibility” really was … the luncheon creates the possibility for the uninsured, those with little means, the minority patients, the crippled and lame, to be treated and taught and encouraged by the greatest staff in the world at absolutely no cost. That’s right … every penny covers the raw cost of the hospital’s pledge, first instilled by the Siskin brothers, to always help those indigent and otherwise.
Now that I am fortified with my first revelation, here’s the tickler.
Late last spring, a young mother had just brought her second baby home and one night offer her husband the chance to sleep soundly in a second bedroom for the night instead of awakening every two or three hours to help tend the newest member of the family. Yet sometime during the night, he heard the baby’s constant wail and rushed to the largest bedroom.
He could not see his wife anywhere. Panicking, he reached for the baby and when he did, he saw his young wife and the floor, the motionless victim of a stroke. She was young, beautiful, vibrant at dinner … but now she was a lifeless puddle, and he was holding a baby – screaming and just two weeks old! -- in the very worst moment of his life.
He immediately called 9-1-1, and Lookout Mountain’s superb EMT team was there in amazingly few minutes. An ambulance, the Erlanger’s brilliant emergency-room team, then ICU. Her mom, believe it or not, got here from Seattle in the same day. Slowly, the young mother improved until she was stabilized. Once out of the danger she was wheeled on a hospital bed into what I privately call, “The Hallway to Life.” I know, I have been down it.
The next time you turn off Third Street and go towards Erlanger’s emergency room, look up about four stories and you’ll see a bridge that crosses high above, this at the mouth of Weihl Street, and is a direct connect between Erlanger and Siskin. Can you imagine being ravaged by a stroke that has terrified your husband, left two small children mystified as they watch the grown-ups cry, and what emotion wrecks any RN who holds an iPhone because the COVID restrictions absolutely allow no visitors.
I am told this happened twice, this around July. Then came one night, as the husband was leaving the lobby, he was approached by an easily-recognizable Siskin official who asked courteously, “May I show you something?” The two walked the length of the building. “Do see this parking space … at 6:30 tomorrow night you might like to bring your mother in law, and the two babies, and park your car.
“As you get out of the car, you want to walk quickly towards that door,” he was pointing to a nondescript door on the side of the building, “and as you reach it,, it will open. You’ll be directed to an elevator and push ‘fourth floor.’ You’ll be met when the doors open, okay?”
With more hope than a man ever had,, he promised he would be there. “Not too early … we have to make sure certain people are gone.”
About 4 o’clock the next day, a bedside nurse told the young mother with the stroke, “We have a special therapy session at 6:30 … don’t worry … this is harmless.” But at 6:30 sharp, two of Siskin’s special all-stars, I’m talking combat ready RNs (one equipped with a discreet diaper bag and whatever it is nursing mothers use, bundled up the stricken wife, got on the elevator and pushed, “Fourth floor.” As soon as the doors opened, the wheelchair made a hard right, and in almost a dash, another Siskin angel opened the door of this non-descript room, immediately closed it, and everybody there cried. COVID be damned.
The two super-star nurses put the young mother in bed, adjusted so she was comfortably sitting, covered her with warm blankets, and then one whispered. “The doctors say it's okay, you’ve been given no contradictory meds … can I help you nurse your baby?”
“The other said, “We got a little wider bed put in here … I think your husband and other baby might like to be beside you,, if that’s okay? And don’t worry, tonight face masks are optional … our entire staff tends to believe he would like a kiss … or two.”
As the young mother was wheeled back to her room, she had a glow even the blind could recognize. Don’t you see, even the steepest ends … at the top of the peak. Within less than a week, the husband was told, “How about 10 o’clock tomorrow morning?” What about it, he asked. “We think it will be a lot easier for her to breast feed … at home.”
Latest word on the mom is she is still coming to the hospital for voice lesson but her oldest child is far and away her best teacher … and at Tuesday’s Possibilities luncheon you’ll get a chance to meet her and her husband. Unfortunately, as you glory in her victory, you will not be able to see the victory felt by the entire Siskin staff and that’s okay … miracles are routine at the place. But trust me, I have seen a lot of the hospital families’ faces, and that, brother, is oh so very real.
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BECAUSE THIS IS VIRAL, all of us get a ringside seat. Tickets are $50 each and upon credit card receipt you will immediately receive a link to Tuesday’s Possibilities Luncheon. In the event you would like to buy a ticket and/or donate to help Siskin celebrate the most successful luncheon that “really” helps our needy, you can include it with the cost of your ticket. To make a difference, please go to https://siskin.swell.gives
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IF YOU ENCOUNTER any problems whatsoever, please call the hospital’s dynamic “problem solver,” Donna Deweese at 423 634-1208 or email directly at ddeweese@siskinrehab.org
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Because of Siskin Hospital, I can!
royexum@aol.com