Every day at Bell Tower Books and the Belfry we are gifted with extraordinary stories from old and new friends. Karen Busby has a story which deserves telling to a wider audience.

Karen was a well-rounded and promising student in her second year of Criminal Psychology at Malaspina College on Vancouver Island. During the stress of final examinations in 1989, her doctor recommended relaxation and a hot bath to deal with disquieting symptoms. But more than nervous tension was at play. A virus had begun penetrating her brain and while travelling to Victoria to see a friend, she became disoriented and was speaking incoherently upon arrival. The hospital emergency team checked for bacterial, but overlooked viral infection. Upon collapsing at the doors on her third visit, a specialist diagnosed that a virus had entered her nervous system.

Rapidly, speech was impossible as paralysis distorted her face. Her entire body became covered in sores with a thick green growth on her tongue. Karen’s Mom insisted that her daughter be taken to the U.B.C. Research Centre in Vancouver. Fortunately, then Premier Bill Vander Zalm made available his plane which avoided a rough ferry ride.

And so with head packed in thick foam and steadied by her Mom’s loving hands, she was soon surrounded by UBC neurologists and specialists, one of whom commented while checking hearing and vision, “Oh my God, this child is deaf and possible blind as well!”

Karen reports that “At this point I was in a vegetative state only breathing and capable of blinking my eyes. The doctors wanted to drill through my skull to extract some tissue that they thought might provide some assistance with finding out what type of virus I had.”

Because of high risk, her Mom elected more exploration through blood tests, which collapsed veins and raised temperatures forcing a series of spinal taps. Several times she was told that her daughter could not live. Undeterred, she used popsicles to stimulate mouth muscles and eventually Karen began to suck like a baby. Hope would not be extinguished.

Karen writes that “after three weeks the doctors told my parents that I could not be helped and wanted them to put me in a nursing home. They believed that I might possibly get some use of my arms but would never walk and probably never be capable of speaking a sentence. My parent’s love for me prevented doctors from giving up and after several confrontations with them was told that all mothers think like mine.”

In the face of professional anxiety and reluctance, her mom had Karen moved to Shaughnessy Hospital where she spent many months. In Karen’s words, “Jesus took over.” She was unable to speak and when nurses would ask questions, they would not accept a nod for “yes” or “no”. Karen was furious and could only groan in response. Deep within, she was motivated to begin speech therapy. The overwhelming calm and reassurance experienced by the family in those days would prove to be real.

After moving to G.F. Strong Rehabilitation Centre for fourteen months, recovery was slow and so she was discharged to return home with her parents. Every two hours her mom moved Karen in her sleep to avoid bed sores. Her father got up early every day before work to train with his daughter in the garage where he had made a physio table and parallel bars. Four attempts at a local college to improve dexterity by typing finally paid off, and trying Math and English helped to retrain her brain.

With renewed confidence, Karen set sights on getting Human Service Worker papers and after two years, graduated from the one year course and moved into BC Housing 50 miles away from home.

On Thanksgiving Day, ironically, there was to be more trouble. Having been to her parent’s for a visit, she decided to return to her condo that stormy night during high winds. With the same stubbornness that helped her to recover, she left in the face of parental concern, insisting that things would be fine. But she was wrong, and recalls;

“A few miles from my residence was a very steep hill with crosswinds. My vehicle was caught in them—the wind ripped my storage lift off the top of the car, flipped it five times down the steep hill and landed up-side-down. The car was crushed all around me but the seat broke and I laid flat and was not hurt. It was like the Holy Spirit was hugging me as I rolled down the side of the hill.”

Not long after, Karen followed her parents to Kelowna where her Christian faith journey began to mature.

Karen often speaks of the singer Michael W. Smith whose lyrics and music “hit right on most of the trials I go through and prove to be a comfort.” She knows that her “recovery was miraculous and closing my eyes and having a private time of worship while listening to Michael’s words allows the Spirit to overcome my mind, spirit and body.”

As a result of her trials, Karen feels that she has been blessed with strong gifts of encouragement, faith, sensitivity and mercy. She has used these gifts to “bring others the joy of having Christ in their lives and by them seeing what I have faced and overcome so it gives hope to deal with their situation.”

Karen Busby has an infectious sense of humour which keeps a smile on her face having overcome great adversity. She wants everyone who hears her story to join her in appreciating small things that we all take for granted, and is grateful to God for her recovery of joy and purpose.

Article by Stan Biggs