As son lies stricken, family's resolve tested
Joey Burns' recovery is excruciatingly slow, but bills mount fast.
By CHANDRA BROADWATER
Published February 11, 2007
BROOKSVILLE - Tania Burns says she doesn't question the ways of God - she believes there is a plan for everyone and everything.
But sometimes she wonders where she will get the strength to go on caring for her 16-year-old son, Joey, who lies in a comalike state in the living room.
She tries not to think too much about why Joey was injured that day in October after a game of touch football turned tackle. She steers her mind away from the burdens of money and what she has been putting on credit cards just to get Joey what he needs.
"God gives you strength you don't know you have," said Burns, 45. "I can't be in a corner crying all the time, even though my heart hurts. I get up, talk to him and keep going. I have to take care of my family."
After months at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, two bouts of pneumonia and some more time in a rehabilitation facility in Largo, Joey came home three weeks ago.
He's doing better than before - his eyes move from side to side and open and close. Just two weeks ago, his big, brown eyes were glazed over.
But doctors still aren't sure of his future. They don't know how much damage the tackle that day in a Spring Hill park did to his brain - which swelled so much that surgeons had to cut away part of his skull.
They can only tell the family to wait, monitor his progress and pray for a miracle.
In the meantime, friends of the Burns family have stepped in to help. People like Kara Clark and her son, Cail, who is close friends with Joey, come to visit.
Cail keeps Joey up to date on what's going on with their friends. It's been hard for them to get used to not having their point person around - Joey was the one who organized everything.
And because Medicaid hasn't approved the physical therapy that Joey needs, people like Cathi Keefe come by every week to stretch his atrophying muscles.
On Friday, the sports medicine expert bent one of the teen's now spindly legs. More than 6 feet tall, Joey was all muscle at 170 pounds. Now he weighs 140.
As a homeschooler, he had plans to play football during his upcoming senior year on the high school team. Joey went out for the team his freshman year when he attended Central High, but concerns about a heart condition - which turned out to be nothing - kept him from trying out.
Today, his hospital bed is off to the side of the living room, next to a wall covered with family pictures. His feeding tube and breathing monitor are there, along with some other mementos his mother brought from his room upstairs - including his Miami Dolphins sign - and another sign sent by his youth group at Christian Church in the Wildwood.
The Bible verse on the cardboard reads, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
He holds two small squishy footballs in his hand to keep them from closing up.
"He hasn't been getting therapy and is starting to get drop foot really bad," Keefe said, pulling back the covers to reveal one of Joey's extended feet.
He now wears braces to keep them from becoming completely useless. Soon he will have another set for his hands.
Through Medicaid, a nurse is also on duty 16 hours a day for the family. This helps free Burns for the morning, when she usually prepares dinner. At night, she tries to sleep and catch up with her husband, Ray, 47, who has been busy trying to find work as a handyman.
But during the day, the mother of five other children, including 11- and 8-year-olds, is on her own. It's even harder on the weekends, when nurses sometimes cancel their shifts and others can't be found to fill in.
What Tania Burns has found the most demanding is getting Joey to and from doctor's appointments. Because he can't be put a regular car, the family calls a special Medicaid transport van.
The service needs 48 hours' notice because Joey's appointments are out of county. And it usually takes all day to get there and back.
The Burnses looked into getting a used van with a wheelchair lift, but even those are too expensive. A used tilt table, which can put Joey upright to move some more of his muscles, was also too expensive.
Keefe went about seeing how a trust fund could be set up in Joey's name, but even that was going to cost $1,000 just to open.
On top of Joey's medical expenses, the mortgage went up by $600. To pay for everything, the Burnses liquidated just about every asset available. They hope to sell a motor home the family bought a few years ago in anticipation of doing cross-country trips together.
Thinking about it all makes Tania Burns let out a big sigh. She wants everyone who has helped to know how much her family appreciates the support.
"And I just hope this makes other children and parents aware of how important it is to wear a helmet if it's going to get rough," she said.
"Football is what he loved the best. Now look what it's done."
Chandra Broadwater can be reached at 352 848-1432 or cbroadwater@sptimes.com.