In Loving Memory Of
Devin
Michael "Devin" Hutchison
May 26, 1985~Dec. 26, 2001
The greatest challenges and rewards in life often come wrapped in the same package. That statement is true for me. I was blessed with a son who was born with a disability. His disability brought many difficulties to him and me. It also made him to be a very special person. His name was Devin. He died on December 26, 2001, when he was 16 years old and I shall miss him for the rest of my life. Devin was a very special person for two reasons - one, his physical disability and two, his personality.
When Devin was born, he was not breathing and after thirteen minutes of artificial respiration, he began to gasp for oxygen. As a result of the lack of oxygen to his brain, Devin had severe cerebral palsy with mental retardation. The first sign that there may be long-term damage was that he did not suck as a newborn does. As a nineteen year-old mother, I took him home inserting a feeding tube down his esophagus each time I fed him. He learned to suck and eat by mouth eventually, but later had to have a permanent feeding tube placed on his stomach to prevent possible aspiration into his lungs, due to an uncoordinated swallow.
What Devin did not do the following months became what he would not do for his entire life. Devin never learned to walk and needed a wheelchair to be pushed by someone else for his mobility. He also never learned to sit up, crawl or even hold his head in an upright position for an extended period. He could only bat at object or people with purpose, but not consistently and had no purposeful use of his hands. He could not feed or do any personal care upon himself. He was not continent and required diapering. Devin never learned to speak, but made some vocal noises and grunts and never truly grasped augmentative communication. He never developed the physical abilities that most children acquire by the time they are two years old. A physical development assessment placed Devin’s age of development at the level of a three-month old when he was fifteen years old.
Medically, Devin required much care. The lack of oxygen to Devin’s brain caused him to have seizures for which he was medicated his entire life. The uncoordinated swallow mechanism caused him to have several pneumonias, but none for which he was hospitalized. If any virus was in the near vicinity, Devin was sure to catch it. He was especially prone to strep throat.
In 1998, an ear, nose and throat specialist admitted Devin into emergency surgery for an obstructed airway. We expected for him to be having a tracheotomy. It turned out to be viral papilloma growing around his vocal chords that were obstructing his airway. They used a laser to remove them and he was out of the woods. The problem was that they recurred and he required fifteen surgeries over the next 3½ years to keep the papilloma from obstructing his airway. Devin also had orthopedicsurgery to extend his hamstrings and keep his hips from coming out of socket. He had to wear casts from the hips down with a bar between his legs for 6 weeks when he was four years old. Since Devin was fed by a tube, he was at higher risk for reflux. The medication he took to prevent the food from traveling up his esophagus to be regurgitated was taken off the market due to risks of heart damage. Without the medication, Devin would vomit daily, sometimes many times a day. He had another surgery to stop the incessant vomiting.
The physical and medical attention that Devin required was enormous. His life was difficult because of it. I was constantly challenged with keeping him healthy. Knowing that his condition could lead to earlier mortality, it began to be a challenge to keep him alive when I faced the fact of his mortality. He had had the healthiest extended period of his life in 2001 after the surgery to stop the reflux.
However, after a stomach virus, Devin became dehydrated and was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit on December 26, 2001. He developed sepsis, which is a potentially deadly infection that gets into your bloodstream. Devin did not survive the infection and died that night from heart failure.
Although his physical and medical care was so demanding, I was rewarded to a much greater extent by Devin’s precious spirit. Devin overcame what he could not do physically with a personality and zest for life that was much greater than his physical disability. One of the greatest gifts of Devin was his ability to love unconditionally. He did not judge people. He did not come to you for a relationship, because he couldn't, but if you chose to come to him and get to know him, he would love you and be your friend no matter who you were or what you had ever done. The only thing he really disliked was harsh tones of anger or argument. Even then, it was not the people he disliked, but the tone of voice. He became a friend to people who would come to him and tell him their story. He never said a word, but just listened. His funeral was a testimony of the many people who had found healing through conversation with Devin.
Devin was also a very funny and happy person, especially when he was well. He loved stories of familiar people and animals. Testing could never prove that Devin understood anything, but his laughter and excited response to his favorite things was proof enough for me. One of his best friends from church hurried out to see him in the parking lot as we were leaving and said, “Devin, I knocked down two little old ladies to come out here and see you.” Devin went into hysterics. He had a quirky sense of humor and loved this kind of story. Any story about Hobbs, Devin’s extremely large, brown mutt was sure to get smiles. He loved animals, especially dogs, goats, and cows, in that order. He could live without cats and was all for it when his friend suggested they take the litter he’d just been blessed with and put them into mailboxes.
Devin loved people. He was always happy to see you. His eyes lit up when I came home every day and he would greet me with a smile and one of his funny voice sounds when I asked him how was his day at school. He loved it when Daddy came home. Dad was “the man.” He loved his family tremendously, but also loved the many health care professionals and educators that he brought into our family and they loved him as well. No one could help but fall in love with him, because he was Devin and he had an irresistible spirit.
His giggle was contagious and would present itself during discussions of how “disgustingly stinky” his diaper was or what those crazy dogs had been doing. If his giggle was contagious, then his laughter was an epidemic. When something really made Devin laugh, he would close his eyes, crinkle up his face and gut-laugh until he groaned. He found the train in Kannapolis hysterical while the school bus waited for it to pass. He also got great entertainment from Daddy licking Christmas card envelopes. Sometimes he would laugh for no reason that typical people could understand. It always made me wonder…
Devin was a man’s man and loved sports: NASCAR, football and Braves baseball. He liked to be witness to any yard work that Daddy would do and was a wonderful construction supervisor for our house. Devin also liked girls. With his head hung down, acting like he was not interested, when the first pretty young girl walked by, up his head would come and he would track her with his eyes until she had passed, then back down his head would go. Girls liked him too and he had a way of playing on their sympathies, acting innocent all the while.
Devin dramatically changed mylife. Because of his disability, I, too was disabled to live life as a typical person. I could not expect the same things from my child as other parents expected. I was not free to travel or make future plans on a whim. But Devin’s spirit gave me a new perspective on life and helped me to know greater rewards. I am forever changed by his coming and his going. I vow to never lose sight of the important lessons that this most precious soul taught me. I accepted the challenge he brought me and was blessed with the rewards that came at the same time. Now the challenge is new and even though I yet don’t see the rewards that may come, like with Devin, I expect they will come from places that I would not expect.
Please take a moment and sign Devin's guestbook
~Thank You~
 
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Midi selection: I Am Your Angel
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