KTBS 3 News | Shreveport, LA: ArkLaTex News - Generosity, prayer and faith are the perfect medicine

Posted: May 19, 2008 8:18 PM
Updated: May 19, 2008 12:00 AM

Dedra Ash came to CHRISTUS Schumpert a few weeks ago because her foot was numb. "I thought I'd just get a cortisone shot and maybe go home, and within 11 hours, I began to go paralyzed on my left leg, then my right leg and then up to a little bit above my belly button."

The ArkLaTex mother had a case of transverse myelitis, a rare neurological disorder caused by inflammation across both sides of one level, or segment, of the spinal cord.

Dedra's son, Braylon, was about to graduate from Loyola College Prep. Paralyzed and in the hospital, Dedra wasn't able to attend her son's baccalaureate ceremony. So, Loyola's principal contacted Sister Sharon Rambin of Schumpert about using a web cam and laptop computer to bring the service to Dedra.

It was the first time Dedra saw her son in a cap and gown. "I just cried the whole time."

There's more good news for Dedra. During physical therapy, she's beginning to experience movement in her toes and one knee. Her son sees it as an answered prayer. Braylon says, "I'd like to thank everybody who has been praying. It's awesome. It's such a little thing to do, but it amounts to so much."