By David Ducklow

MY TESTIMONY starts at my birth, November 27, 1978.

I was born with a life-threatening sickness called hydrocephalus, which means water on the brain.

This meant that, while still in the womb, my brain was severely deformed. After a CAT scan, the doctors determined that I had approximately two percent living brain tissue.

They said I would be a person who is unable to do anything for himself: a vegetable. This news came as a great shock to my parents, who were looking forward to starting a family in their new home in West Vancouver.

When my dad held me as a babe, he saw I had a head the size of a two year old, and also as soft as a sponge – due to the amount of water in my head. I also made no sound – due to the fact that I had not enough brain tissue, even to cry.

My father sensed God telling him to name me David, (which means ‘beloved of God’), and Joseph, (which means ‘He shall add’). Dad knew God loved me, and he believed God would add brain cells to my tiny brain.

Why & how

Mom and dad listened as the doctors told them why I was this way and how hydrocephalus takes place.

“Before a baby is born,” they explained, “water travels up and down its spinal column several times per day. This fluid makes sure that the vital pathways in the body are clear, so the body’s essential organs may continue to work. What happened in David’s case is that, somehow, the fluid was unable to make it all the way down his spinal column. Through time, water backed up his spinal column and filled his head, crushing his brain.”

The doctors continued: “In order for any child to live an ordinary life, they must be born with at least 48 percent brain.” Brain cells do not multiply; the amount of brain tissue a child is born with is the most brain tissue he or she will ever have.

Surgery

I was given no longer than one or two days to live. My parents were told by the doctors that surgery could enable them to insert a shunt, or tube, which would drain fluid from my head and take pressure off the brain.

However, at that time the procedure was fairly new; plus, they could not be certain that it would work perfectly. Even if it did work, they were unable to guarantee I would live long because of the lack of brain cells.

But my parents believed Jesus was able to heal me so that I might be able to live a normal life.

I believe that, when Jesus walked this earth 2,000 years ago, there was little that impressed him more than faith shown by regular human beings around him. My parents read a story in the Bible, which encouraged them to pray until something happened in my life.

The most helpful passage was Luke 18:7–8: “Will not God make the things that are right come to his chosen people, who cry day and night to him? Will he wait a long time to help them? I tell you, he will be quick to help them. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

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Prayer

People started to pray and have faith that Jesus would work a miracle in my life. They prayed God would multiply my brain cells, so I would be able to live without the help of machines. They prayed that, just as Jesus made the lame walk, made the blind see and gave life to those who were dead, he would give me brain cells so I could become a normal human being.

After six months of continuous prayer, the doctors were amazed to find I had 25 percent brain tissue. They continued to pray. Six months later, the doctors were amazed to find the tissue increased to 50 percent. By this point, I was a year old and was slowly learning how to do simple things.

My parents and those who consistently prayed for me were in awe at what God was doing, full of praise and thanksgiving to him. As people continued to pray on my behalf, the Lord heard their prayers and continued to answer them.

Their prayers were answered when the doctors took a final CAT scan prior to my second birthday – and found 98 percent brain tissue.

By this time, I was able to do most things a two year old child could do.

The only problem, which has persisted since my early days of life, is a severe visual impairment. The doctors have determined on many occasions that I have only 2.5 percent vision in my left eye and 3 percent vision in my right. However, this was enough vision to get me through my first nine years of grade school.

In grade nine, when I was 13, I suffered a stroke which paralyzed the entire right side of my body. Before I came out of the coma, doctors in San Diego, California performed surgery to place a second shunt down the left side of my body.

Scars of courage

For years, I had had scars on my stomach – which my parents termed “scars of courage.” By the time the surgery was done in 1991, I had twice as many scars to boast about!

Soon after the surgery, I awoke from my coma, and went back to school. The Special Education Assistants (SEAs) at my school now needed to help me overcome memory issues and balance problems, in addition to my blindness.

With their help, I still managed to graduate from grade school with my classmates in 1996.

That fall, I started a psychology degree at Trinity Western University, and graduated in 2003. Two years ago, I completed a certificate in Special Education – and now work as a Special Education Assistant at a Christian school in North Vancouver.

SEAs had helped me successfully complete each level of grade school. It is now my privilege to help others in the same way. Not bad for someone who was supposed to die as an infant!

My parents praised me for my courage in going through the surgeries; but I give all the credit to Jesus. He was the one who healed me. I want my story to serve as a reminder that God can, and does, heal us today.

I believe he can work the same miracle in the lives of people anywhere. God is willing and able to make your life a testimony of his ability to transform.

My life was turned around by prayer offered in simple faith. All we must do is ask.

As Jesus said in John 9:3: “This happened so that the works of God might be shown in this person’s life.”

February 2008