| -- End Ad Box ---> | | | | social outlet than to commune with God. Nevertheless, |
| In an interview with Maurice Broadus, Jim Stovall, | | | | Cynthia's feelings began to change with each Sunday |
| best-selling author of The "Ultimate Gift", said, "it takes | | | | visit to church. The pastor at the church constantly |
| a life-altering event to move from religion to | | | | preached the "Good News," the Gospel, and the fact |
| relationship." Mr. Stovall further elaborated that "one's | | | | that, as an example of the ultimate sacrifice and an |
| faith has to go from a theory that you take down and | | | | example of all that a parent will do to save his child, |
| polish off on Sunday mornings to something real that | | | | God sent his only son to live on this earth as a human |
| you can live with." In the case of Cynthia Paddock | | | | and to ultimately die for the sins of the whole world so |
| Doroghazi, suffering through a traumatic brain injury | | | | that we mortals could be reconciled forever to Him. |
| (TBI) was the life altering event that ultimately moved | | | | "Who was this God?" Cynthia asked. "Who was this |
| her from religion to relationship. | | | | God, who was so loving and self-sacrificing that he |
| Cynthia was in her second semester as a candidate | | | | would do this? Was this the same God, she asked, |
| for a master's degree at The Johns Hopkins University | | | | "who had left me paralyzed and in a coma and forced |
| School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in | | | | me to abandon my chosen career path? What kind of |
| Washington, D. C. when symptoms of hydrocephalus, | | | | God was this that would force me to live with a |
| more commonly known as water on the brain, intruded | | | | traumatic brain injury (TBI)?" |
| into her daily routine. The procedure used to correct | | | | Accepting she could never answer these questions, |
| this condition is considered routine in the realm of brain | | | | Cynthia decided to make some sense of her own |
| surgery as the patient is in and out of the hospital in | | | | situation. So, she began to search for the meaning of |
| four days, with a recovery period of about two | | | | her existence in an attempt to discover why she was |
| weeks. | | | | literally saved from death. Did this God that she was |
| God apparently had other plans for Cynthia. After the | | | | hearing so much about have a plan for her life as the |
| operation, Cynthia was transferred from the recovery | | | | Old Testament of the Bible says in Jeremiah, Chapter |
| room to the Neurological Concentrated Care Unit. | | | | 29, verse 11? "For I know the plans I have for you," |
| While there, Cynthia began to hemorrhage. The bleed | | | | declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to |
| began to compress her brain, cutting off the flow of | | | | harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." If so, |
| oxygen. | | | | what was it? |
| By the time the nurse in charge of Cynthia's care | | | | In embarking upon this search, Cynthia tried to answer |
| perceived the gravity of Cynthia's deteriorating | | | | the questions: "How can a person enter the hospital |
| condition and notified the resident on call, Cynthia was | | | | for what is supposed to be a routine operation and |
| experiencing respiratory failure. Cynthia was twenty | | | | end up paralyzed on the left side of her body, in a |
| minutes away from death before the nurse called the | | | | coma, unable to walk or talk, being fed through a tube, |
| resident on duty. | | | | with the I.Q. of a vegetable?" And, "How is it that same |
| Upon examining Cynthia, the resident called a code | | | | person, whom doctors predicted would be in an |
| blue, and she was rushed back into surgery, where a | | | | institution for the rest of her life and unable to continue |
| procedure to cut away part of her skull to evacuate | | | | along her chosen career path, survive the odds and |
| the blood was performed. Cynthia slid into a coma, | | | | live to fight another day?" How indeed? |
| moving in and out of a semi-vegetative state for the | | | | Cynthia found inspiration from a scene from the movie, |
| next three months. At the time of her transfer from | | | | The Sound of Music. In this scene, The Mother |
| her hospital in Washington, D.C. to Magee Rehabilitation | | | | Superior calls Maria before her to ask why she has |
| Hospital in Philadelphia, Cynthia was paralyzed on the | | | | run away from the Von Trapp family household and is |
| left side of her body, with the IQ of a vegetable, in | | | | seeking refuge in the convent from which she had |
| diapers, being fed through a tube, able to remember | | | | come. The viewer ultimately discovers that Maria has |
| very little and facing the prospect of having to relearn | | | | fallen in love with Captain Von Trapp and, out of fear |
| what a baby learns in the first years of life. | | | | of the unknown and because she had no experience |
| The events surrounding that tragic day, May 7, 1990, | | | | in how to deal with such a situation, she fled. The |
| ultimately set Cynthia on a journey to discover who | | | | Mother Superior says to Maria, "When God shuts a |
| she was and for what purpose she was on this earth. | | | | door. He almost always opens a window." |
| In short, it brought about a spiritual awakening. Cynthia | | | | For Cynthia, the Mother Superior's statement has |
| recounts this amazing journey in her recently published | | | | transcended her life. Events in Cynthia's past |
| book, target="_new. | | | | demonstrate how that statement very clearly applies |
| When people experience any kind of misfortune, | | | | to her life. As she examined the various turning points |
| devastating disease, or loss, it is not unusual for them | | | | in her life: her ultimate choice of careers, her decision |
| to end up bitter and angry. Cynthia, too, continued to be | | | | to leave New York and enter graduate school in |
| bitter and angry for years. Then, one Sunday, about a | | | | Washington, D.C., the process by which she ended up |
| year after her release from Magee Rehabilitation | | | | at Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, even the events |
| Hospital, Cynthia attended a church in San Antonio, | | | | surrounding meeting her future husband, Cynthia began |
| Texas where the pastor delivered a sermon about a | | | | to see the possibility that there was a larger force in |
| shepherd and one sheep that was always running off | | | | the universe at work, a greater Being who had a plan |
| into the woods, getting lost or otherwise getting into | | | | for her life and was constantly shaping events, leading |
| mischief. After several failed attempts at discipline, the | | | | her down a path to an ultimate, but as yet unknowable, |
| shepherd finally broke the sheep's legs and then | | | | goal, another "open door" as Cynthia characterizes it. In |
| carried him on his back until the sheep's legs healed. | | | | the end, Cynthia has come to believe that these turning |
| From that moment forward, the sheep never strayed | | | | points were not just a series of coincidences. Cynthia |
| far from his master's side. That sermon really spoke to | | | | believes that these turning points were all part of a |
| Cynthia, because, in many respects, the story of that | | | | divine plan to place her where she needed to be to |
| sheep was, from Cynthia's standpoint, her story. | | | | receive the help she needed to recover from her |
| Hearing that parable was the beginning of Cynthia's | | | | traumatic brain injury (TBI). Cynthia's spiritual journey |
| spiritual awakening, a process that has taken more | | | | has taken her from a point of despair to a place |
| than fifteen years of her life. This spiritual awakening | | | | where she enjoys true peace and contentment. |
| did not occur overnight. Upon returning to Washington, | | | | Copyright 2007 by Cynthia P. |
| D.C. in 1992, Cynthia started going to church, more as a | | | | |