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(Qc+ZGIa$cl~U) qWm22a$=Z6*O:|FGW/>o8}pP(:(p1&pNi-e^;˸#jޫjIK[Y"c5p`"ӧ6"wP8*3;g@j4}*n;aOZc\~.qFzһ (")`&F)F=@4r(1ErK#*@Aڦ rES%2O u4P)3gxQ@IR9@9 sxC,a@5 P=B QEH*3;GJ(0;HZ(&'(P IےQ@ =(b? awake one night taking deep breaths to avoid being put on the ventilator but his lungs were filling with fluid. He was put on the ventilator the next morning, At this point, Kevin was unable to speak because of the breathing tube. The drugs he was on while on the ventilator caused terrible nightmares and hallucinations. <br>Kevin's father, Don, recalled,  As each day went by, Kevin got worse and worse. It took three or four days to find the courage to ask the doctor if he thought Kevin would make it. He told me no. Over the last ten years, no one with that condition in that hospital had made it out alive.<br>The truth is that the hospital, at first, did not even want to admit Kevin. Upon admittance even the nurses were not very enthusiastic about caring for their  doomed patient. The first nurse came in and did her duty. As she was about to leave, she heard a knocking sound coming from the bed. It was Kevin. He couldn't talk but he managed to use his hands to request a piece of paper and a pen. Exhausted he wrote the following two words:  Thank you. From then on the nurses would practically fight over who would get to care for Kevin. Every time the nurses would attend him, Kevin would scrawl out his  thank you on a piece of paper.<br> I never thought I was going to die, said Kevin,  but the doctors all thought so. There was never any doubt that I'd get to play. Coach Ralph was one of the very few that never gave up. I remember he'd tell people that Kevin can do anything he sets his mind to do. He can come back if he wants to. <br>Kevin just kept thinking,  I'm losing. I'm losing. I'm losing. All the tubes, the medications. I just got tired of it and wanted to win for a change. I looked down and saw all the people in the room who had helped me through the years in football, karate and all the things I've done. All the athletics. I looked at myself and they weren't giving up on me. I wasn't about to start then. <br>Mr. Wilson said with emotion,  While Kevin was on the life support machine and the ventilator, he motioned for a piece of paper and wrote the following three words: Today I WIN. You could just see in his eyes that he was going to turn it around. From that point on he got better and better. Like just in no time. <br> The next set of blood tests, said Mrs. Wilson,  showed that the kidneys were beginning to kick in. Everything was starting to get a little bit better. Kevin had just decided that he had had it. He was tired of the life support and he was going to fight. <br>Kevin offered,  The power of the mind and your will is incredible when you have to use it. You can do things you can't imagine. <br>Friday, while in intensive care, Kevin wrote a letter of inspiration to his team before their preseason game. (in the box to the left)<br>After writing the letter, Kevin declared that he would be at the first season game the following Friday. No one thought it was possible, even the doctors, but he made it. He was discharged on September 10th, just hours before game time. Kevin walked with his teammates onto the field and participated in the coin toss. A few days later, Kevin told his parents that he would play again during the 1999 season. But his muscles had all been damaged from the acid in his system and he had lost 30 pounds. Kevin went to physica