Steven Thorpe Friday Success Story
Steven Thorpe was 17 when he was in a tragic car accident in Kenilworth, Warwickshire UK. He was a passenger in the car where his best friend was killed.
Steven was taken in an ambulance to the university hospital and placed in a medically induced coma. The doctors also performed a craniotomy to help alleviate any swelling in the brain. However the doctors determined Stephen was “brain dead” and advised his parents to turn off life support and donate his organs.
But Steven Thorpe’s parents, John and Janet Thorpe refused to give up hope – despite four specialists declaring that the 17-year-old was “brain dead”.
Get A Second Opinion
Steven Thorpe’s parents begged for another opinion – and it was that decision that saved him.
They called their GP, Julia Piper, who in turned asked another neurosurgeon to come along to see Steven.
In the video below, listen to her words….protocols, 4 doctors said he was dead…
There were four doctors treating him at the hospital and those four doctor’s agreed he was “brain dead”. If at all possible get a second opinion of someone NOT practicing in the same hospital. The two independent doctors came in and detected “faint” brain activity and a “slim” chance of recovery.
Two weeks later Steven Thorpe woke up.
Five weeks later he left the hospital.
Steven told the BBC, “It’s very worrying to think that…more than one specialist has written me off pretty much and I am lucky to be here really due to having a second opinion.” In the Daily Mail (UK) he added: “Hopefully it can help people to see that you should never give up.”
Today, the 21-year-old with “brain damage” is studying accounting at a local university. “My impression is maybe the hospital wasn’t very happy that my father wanted a second opinion,” he told the Mail.
If you have a child or loved one in the hospital and they are declared “brain dead” you have every right to get a second opinion.
I can’t help but wonder how many other people would be alive today, if they had been given more time and got a second opinion? No one knows.
I believe this is not rare even though the medical community wants you to think someone waking up from a deep coma is.
They need those organs and push, push, push and hover, hover, hover.
Listen to Steven Thorpe’s remarkable story. I love what Dr. Julia Piper says, “I always listen to the parents, they know and have gut instincts.”
Each time I hear a success story, I just sad about what the world lost and Jamie was just a friend, obviously no comparison to that of a mother/child relationship.
I have to say that I very much admire you overcoming your personal grief to post these success stories though. It’s very brave of you because, as a mother, I know I would just keep thinking “what if?” were I in your shoes. I pray I never know such pain because I don’t feel I have it in me to face such loss.
I know you haven’t “moved on” but how have you gotten past the way the doctors treated you, the questions….? And how have you arrived to this point to write about the good?
I do it because it makes sense of Jamie’s death. We are not stupid people but we knew nothing about brain death. I have been involved in Pro-Life causes all my life, counseled in a Pregnancy Center, helped a family adopt a baby, picked abortion clinics, attended rallies. But, I still had not heard about brain death.
That disturbed me and the more I speak to people who have signed the donor card, they have not heard either. Where were people when this report came about, why did they not stand up. It came into effect before Roe v Wade in 1973.
I feel Jamie looking on and encouraging me on. There are many doctors like Dr. Paul Byrne that have stood up and others I will be writing about but honestly it is very few. They are the Scientist and should me speaking up, not me just a mom who came head to head with it when we were pressured to donate his organs at Vanderbilt.