Dad Says Facebook Prayers May Save Son’s Life
Updated 4:59 PM EST, Wed, Nov 18, 2009
Kevin Hirsch doesn’t have to battle swine flu and pneumonia alone.
He has strangers like Kate Quintus posting messages like this on a Facebook page in his honor: “I have not had the opportunity to meet you in person, but you have touched my heart as you have others, and feel blessed. God Bless You.”
Kevin’s father credits hundreds of Facebook supporters with keeping the 26-year-old going, their support having already saved his son’s life four times.
“He’s hanging on by a thread,” Michael Hirsch said the doctor told him on Tuesday.
Two weeks ago, Kevin came home from his McDonald’s job with a slight fever. At first things seemed to be getting better, then his fever shot back up and he had to be rushed to the ER. Kevin had swine flu, complicated by pneumonia and other secondary infections.
The last time he’d been sick was four years ago.
“He’s just very close to death,” Hirsch told NBCPhiladelphia. “He’s on life support.”
Family friend Penny Slakoff started a Facebook prayer page shortly after Kevin was hospitalized. She says more than 400 have viewed it, many leaving comments.
“We have people from all over the world who are joining this page and they are thinking about a strange person., somebody they have never met,” Slakoff says. “And it shows that people really do have some compassion.”
That's when Kevin's father said the miracles began.
On Sunday, he wrote on Kevin's prayer's page that his son had spent 10 days in an induced coma “…but without a doubt he has fought back from every setback.....with all of you as [sic] h...is fuel and inspiration....”
Monday was “not a good day,” Hirsch wrote. Doctors said Kevin had a 10 percent chance of survival. “Let’s see if they [prayers] can help him improve,” he wrote.
Last night at 10:30, Hirsch wrote that Kevin’s lack of oxygen may have done irreversible damage to his brain.
Whatever happens, he said he wants to get the word out that people shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to get vaccinated.
“Get it, don’t second guess it,” he says.
You can see Kevin's prayer page on Facebook here.
First Published: Nov 18, 2009 8:37 AM EST
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