my family was hoping and praying to hear even the slightest bit of encouragement from that doctor. instead, his pessimistic words gave my family no reason to believe that i would ever again be a productive member of society. but once again i beat the odds and survived the three and a half hours of surgery. granted, i still could not talk, my entire right side was paralyzed and many people thought i could not understand, but at least i was stable. after one week in a private room the doctors felt i had improved enough to be transferred by jet ambulance to del oro rehabilitation hospital in houston.