Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo, Sonja Burpo, Lynn Vincent, Colton Burpo Read Free Book Online

preschooler about dying. Colton had been with me in nursing homes, places where people gave their loved ones permission to let go of life. I wasnt about to give my son permission to quit. We werent out of the woods yet, and I didnt want him to think that death was an option.

    I willed my voice to remain steady and smiled at my son. You just think about getting better, okay, buddy?

    Okay, Daddy.

    Were here with you all the way. Were praying for you. I changed the subject. Now, what can we bring you? Do you want your action figures from home?

    We hadnt been in the room long when three members of our church board arrived at the hospital. We were so grateful for that. Sometimes I wonder, what do people do when they have no extended family and no church? In times of crisis, where does their support come from? Cassie stayed with Norma and Bryan in Imperial until my mother, Kay, could drive up from Ulysses, Kansas. Bryans extended family lives in North Platte, and they came to help us too. Our church gathering around us in the eye of the storm would change the way Sonja and I approached pastoral visitation in times of trial and grief. We were faithful about it before; now were militant.

    Soon, Sonja came back into the room and not long after that, Dr. OHolleran joined us. Colton lay quietly as the surgeon pulled back the sheet to show us the incision site, a horizontal line across the right side of his tiny belly. The wound was packed with blood-tinged gauze, and as he began to remove it, Colton whimpered a bit in fear. I dont think he could feel it yet, since he was still under the effects of the local anesthesia the surgical team had applied to the incision site.

    Coltons insides were so contaminated with the poison of the ruptured appendix that Dr. OHolleran had decided it was best to leave his incision open so it could continue to drain.

    Now the doctor spread the wound slightly.

    See that gray tissue? he said. Thats what happens to internal organs when theres an infection. Coltons not going to be able to leave the hospital until everything thats gray in there turns pink.

    A length of plastic tubing protruded from each side of Coltons abdomen. At the end of each tube was what the doctor called a grenade. Clear plastic in color, they did look a little like grenades, but they were actually manual squeeze pumps. The next morning, Dr. OHolleran showed us how to squeeze the grenades to drain pus from Coltons abdomen and then pack the opening with fresh gauze. For the next few days, Dr. OHolleran would arrive each morning to check the wound and pack the dressing. Colton screamed bloody murder during those visits and began to associate the doctor with everything bad that was happening to him.

    In the evenings, when the doctor wasnt there, I had to drain the incision. Prior to the surgery, Sonja had been on puke patrol for nearly a week and since the surgery, at Coltons bedside every minute. But draining the pus was gory work and, for her, a bridge too far. Besides, it took at least three adults to hold Colton down. So while I squeezed the grenades, Sonja helped two nurses hold him, Sonja whispering soothing words while Colton screamed and screamed.

    TEN PRAYERS OF A MOST UNUSUAL KIND

    For another week after the emergency appendectomy, Colton continued to throw up, and we continued to pump poison out of his body twice a day using Dr. OHollerans rigging of plastic tubing and grenades. Slowly, gradually, Colton took a turn for the better. The upchucking stopped, his color returned, and he began to eat a little. We knew he was on the mend when he began to sit up and chat with us, play with the video game console the nurses had stationed at his bed, and even take an interest in the brand-new stuffed lion that Cassie had brought him several days before. Finally, seven days after we checked in to the hospital in North Platte, the medical team said we could take our son home.

Heaven is for real
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    The elevator doors had