Darlin Publishing Company
I Heard a Voice Say “Never Throw in the Towel”
Linda McCoy worked very hard to raise her sons to be good people.
As a single mother working three jobs, homeless at times and not always making the right choices, this was a difficult task. Yet her boys were respectful, hardworking, loving and strong in their faith.
McCoy, author of I Heard a Voice Say “Never Throw in the Towel”, was proud of her oldest son, Darien, who was an industrious, energetic, responsible young man with a bright future ahead of him. He worked hard, helped his mother with the household expenses, helped raise his younger brother and went to school.
Darien took classes at the local Community College and worked very hard at his job at a major hardware company. It was at this company that tragedy befell him. He took a fall of almost 20 feet, hitting his head on the way down. Instead of being rushed to the hospital, Darien was sent home to rest. He returned to work where he was again injured to the same area of the head during his effort to do the best job he could for this company. Again, he was sent home. Three months later, while he was at work, Darien complained of shooting pains from his neck into his head. This time, Darien was rushed to the hospital. When his mother arrived, he was unresponsive. The sound of her prayers was able to bring him around. The hospital performed many tests on Darien, finally they found that an injury to his brain stem had left him paralyzed from the mouth down.
“They told me that Darien’s injury was more severe than any injury that they had ever seen,” wrote McCoy. “As they explained it: the specific injury had caused an infork to his brain-stem and that no one had ever lived with an injury level that high.”
No one expected Darien Smith to live. No one, that is except Darien, his mother and their family. They turned to family and friends for support and also found strength in their religious beliefs.
“I went home to my mother’s house, and kneeled down in prayer and search for answers, and said to God: ‘I taught my son everything you told me, to love you, to be a good man, everything, and he’s asking me why, and I don’t have an answer for why this happened to me?’,” wrote McCoy. “Then the spirit said to me, ‘Go tell him to remember Job’.”
The company Darien had been working for and the insurance company that insured them were so sure that Darien would die that they would not give him the money for proper care. They wanted to put him in a home and just wait for him to die. There was no way his mother was going to accept that. McCoy fought tooth and nail for her son’s right to live, not just live, but live a productive and fulfilling life. The legal battles were gruesome, and their aid was constantly being cut. Darien required two nurses around the clock to care for his needs. He was constantly coding and it took two people to bring him back each time. His aunt, a Respiratory Therapist, left her position to come help care for him. Along the way they put together a nursing staff of very dedicated individuals. His mother never left his side, being there to do chest compressions or to suction his respirator, whatever needed to be done to keep her child alive.
With the dedicated aid of their legal counsel, their family, their friends and many medical professionals who have become like family, Darien proved everyone wrong. Darien Smith is alive now, 16 years after his fateful accident. He goes to church, the movies and the mall. He is still a respiratory-dependent quadriplegic, but he has regained the ability to speak and is able to express himself without the aid of his mother.
“I want for readers after putting this book down to never give up… in particular younger readers, to not take life for granted, because tomorrow is promised to no one,” —Darien Smith.
Smith and McCoy hope Darien’s story will help to change the face of healthcare in this country.
