JFIFC    $ &%# #"(-90(*6+"#2D26;=@@@&0FKE>J9?@=C  =)#)==================================================v" }!1AQa"q2#BR$3br %&'()*456789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz w!1AQaq"2B #3Rbr $4%&'()*56789:CDEFGHIJSTUVWXYZcdefghijstuvwxyz ?<V:am3W7Hpko ZG,QptQ.O51?@k$k&lr-!t{/l:r XZuVgѧߵ2 Nۛx&F}\^IgKOeq GWy4efVSR9ּؙ2LgnT}-o]xYY-!E I$Zj~87;m3\%\;D]>Xíu`V(of8qI]ަ֛iqClP7rjZt[_+ۦ$kȪBv ?sG>\ּZǹ(20P:f:hLMcqvFT)e^wLyn|ʇhyys+Ťq>}a t(l+ֽ O.q}#,qoykswgIYQm2:ʩskt@cO&*r@%*g&3FDkOƫ< @9kRWfHlV-B|޳>,Ci<%#8;?ifXX:kcm|I}vn#g95ȕj3Ӡo8 E%n˩kQĢb58b!b$H6w z t/4=>O1 Z=QI;hqo|0|D#pNϛo ::[{96ޣ+ݯt dcog+. hس5d|8OfF(qpO{4pYzٹnH/(Xa1QiX>w(u&*1lφDZprڻ?xY/Ħг,=JmXvA6ֶԢ|\lc𭏜VkW^qEn]݉I?}-mg>5b&ܩ{lIlaityomt]u8^OAhd+gF:K&͒$j<-&+5ڦ}ymnw|ں"k\:C,$7~ʲu Y4=Aڡt=OZ;jYN^I]g yė s|UDc8Zf.H(qr\0*q-4Şݱ4O'`0A#ѐ=ZUހ Ta'֢JːOa(JY`B= z6Ū ${JIh3e($vZ„R=~YG8XYpA$40Qrr"qS*nYcoڠIXFw9; `My@kռoody~Q5Q2]01U!&z[Ii3)= , ̤`8fV6/< )!#J(2=i y)\VT+9ң+y3S1 5g}E !2;[>PSqTQv+:8fqEҎaS[ Jm*K 3)ފ({ nz]mb0ڞ{Ƅ/-W/SNj#[nG<¹RRvaQ[Gc)=ۚ(3,Z]cpZѸ<C^iLDh,>E,nm 4 8=sE sV5i;x_Jv!D<(pER@.(At one point, we almost gave up hope that Kevin would be able to fight and come back.<br> By the third day his blood was losing the ability to clot. He was bruising and in danger of having a stroke or internal bleeding. The blood tests showed that all of his organs were continuing to deteriorate. On the fifth day Kevin was put on kidney dialysis requiring another tube to be placed in the other side of his neck which also connected to his heart. Kevin was suffering from fevers so an infection disease specialist was called in to determine the cause. He ordered three pages worth of blood tests. Kevin had so many tests coupled with blood clotting problems that he was given blood transfusions. <br> The next organs to fail were his lungs. Kevin stayed 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, kara