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Kw:8Y.鞙%*Zܓ*4RK'?Fi7Ɠ$k yxs4@#^]#9. ]ū۴2-9Pt[FuEGiF?kHC0B.Ϊ|([񟩬i<t4ԌHtXZ}2KytU=77xOʼnY.:RbE^79_C u*sVڄg'$,@9')ei= +~[O1Fn˖G]񦛧 I Jlѭϓgr;:U]';C֠]p0Gҹ{5tPIRZvSaCƌtou[ c r}+!":!]]V7mi Eh6T?fij9ZLO42υNUREWvMUᙊm>uK23\ 3M,>OHܖV= qA8ۂ8'SÚ{B"C2Z;M#7C㴻#Rl^a ϩ,u=3U;e{|I;_O$BA?μYI\hGH9AEV55=,hg\NѸ۹[Q ݒo$Ү.,jω `=>ݨ$;܄e+^MTv_0f|29 zVXiqQT 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 inno 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 physical therapy with the goal of playing in the homecoming game which was still a month away. These goals came after the doctors, who to this day still cannot explain how he survived, told Kevin he would be in the hospital for the next six months. Playing football, they said, wasn't even an option. Kevin used this as an incentive to aid his recovery and like his mom said,  Once he has set a goal, he does it. <br>While staging his comeback in the hospital, Santee (Kevin's community) and surrounding communities were staging fundraisers to help support him because of the lack of insurance coverage.  It's been amazing. said Kevin with gratefulness.  People we don't know are sending us money. People in the community and businesses have done things for us. They printed up t-shirts to sell. It's just amazing to see the amount of people that will come out and help you when you need it. You see all the horrible things that happen on the news. Something like this sort of restores your faith in humanity. <br>Mrs. Wilson added,  Without us asking, they've all just jumped in and done all these benefits, car washes and fundraisers for him. A wonderful young man from the Valhalla team put it really well when he said,  We might be competitors but were more comrades E, :(&̴YuV7YK>X4,]]9? X\?IW6w