Senior Came Back From Brink Of Death At Age 8
By Terry Britt
Staff Writer
E
DGEWOOD—Twice
each school day,
Britney Bell quietly goes about her work as a student office aide at Edgewood High School.
Now in her senior year, she has done well enough academically to merit two class periods serving the school’s main office in that capacity.
Statistically, though, she should not be in her senior year of high school. According to the odds, she has no business even being in high school at Edgewood — or anywhere else.
That is because, medically speaking, Britney Bell was supposed to have died at the age of 8.
But this story isn’t about medicine and far-reaching odds as much as it is about miracles and faith.
The Longest Night
Dennis Bell says the day he took his older daughter for a "day surgery-type" procedure on her sinus cavities still echoes in his mind, the images, sounds and emotions both vivid and blurry at once.
"I was dressed out to go to work right after that," said Bell, who at the time was a driver for United Parcel Service. "It was going to be a 20- or 30-minute deal."
Britney and her parents were at the then-Mesquite Memorial Hospital. Dennis said doctors believed a cleaning procedure on Britney’s sinus cavities would alleviate her ongoing allergy and congestion problems.
No one — not the medical staff or Britney’s parents — ever envisioned what would happen.
"My wife and I were just sitting there in the waiting room talking," Dennis said. "I think we went out for awhile, maybe to get something to eat, and came back, just sitting in the waiting room.
"Then this nurse or doctor comes in screaming and crying, ‘I’m sorry.’ I had no clue at first that they were addressing it towards us," he said.
Immediately after that, other medical personnel directed the Bells to the hospital’s family room and informed them that major complications had developed while Britney was in surgery, Dennis recalled.
"I didn’t understand it at all. My wife and I were just floored," he said. "You can’t imagine what goes through your mind, when immediately after that, the hospital chaplain came down and told us we may want to start taking care of (funeral) arrangements."
Britney said she remembers very little from that day in surgery.
"I remember going into the hospital and then waking up mid-surgery. I was throwing up and I was scared to put the (oxygen) mask back on," she said. "I didn’t remember going into ICU and all that, nothing until going back into a normal (hospital) room."
Britney later learned she was in a coma for three weeks, and that wasn’t even the worst of it.
Dennis saw everything during that time — nine cardiac arrests, hemorrhaging of the liver and life sustained only by an ECMO (ExtraCorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machine.
"It was the longest night of my life," he said, remembering the sight of his daughter being on a gurney as she was transported to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, "and to this day, it all runs together in my mind."
"To see all of that, it makes your stomach weak," he said. "To see her entire chest just collapse…I remember every time she flatlined and they would come in, start working on her and finally get her back.
"There was one instance that really scared me, because she did not respond to it (resuscitation) immediately," Dennis continued. "I actually had to leave the room to try to regain my composure."
It was when Britney’s death was almost a foregone conclusion that the most unexpected event of all happened, the thing Dennis says "is the part that lets you know somebody is in charge."
"My wife and I went in to her cardiologist, and he let us know there was nothing else they could do. Her liver had burst, her lungs had started to fail. She had no muscles moving, no brain activity," Dennis said.
"He told us, ‘Go ahead and get your pastor, bring him out here in the morning…We are going to remove her from the machines," Dennis added.
"I was almost on the heart transplant list, and they were telling my parents to go ahead and make funeral arrangements," Britney said.
The next morning, Britney didn’t need a heart transplant, liver transplant or any machine.
"The doctor came in crying. He was just completely blown away," Dennis said. "He said, ‘I don’t know what god you pray to, but that god is a mighty one.’"
Dennis and Mary Katherine Bell saw their daughter walking.
Relearning and remembering
The night before the apparent end of Britney Bell’s short life, her father returned home to pick up a change of clothing for himself and his wife.
"I dropped down to my knees," Dennis recalled, "and I told God, ‘I don’t know what you want, but I’ve done all I can do on earth and given her the best care I can.’ And then I said, ‘Lord, she’s yours.’
"That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I gave her up to God, and He gave her back to me. After that, I asked God to see her all the way through whatever her destiny is," he added.
After spending a few weeks in a regular room, Britney — against all odds — was released from the hospital, but had a lot of work ahead.
"I had to relearn almost everything. I was so bad for so long, I had to work really hard to regain what I knew before the surgery," she said.
Britney missed the remainder of that school year as she continued her unbelievable recovery, Dennis said.
"She came an extremely long way, from virtually zero to where she was remembering just about everything. Mainly when she got back to school, that was when she started making tremendous progress," he said.
That traumatic time seems more like a bad dream to Britney these days. "When I came out of the hospital, I still didn’t know anything that had happened. My parents sat me down and told me. It still seems crazy."
The family moved to Edgewood and Britney went on to play basketball, volleyball and softball, became a cheerleader and has been an honor roll student all the while.
"My wife and I have been amazed by watching her, and we’re not discouraging her on anything," Dennis said. "All of her teachers from day one have said she’s just a little angel to have with them."
A faith-filled life
Britney’s miraculous recovery had a profound effect on her father, whose own life has been filled with tribulations.
Five years ago, Dennis was involved in a vehicular accident that left him permanently disabled.
"I got hit by a truck and broke my neck," he said.
His days of making good money with UPS are long gone, but, as Dennis put it, "Now, I don’t see the real value of money."
He gives a lot of credit to former Edgewood Church of God pastor Larry Barrett, now the pastor at House of Grace, for helping the family through lean times and keeping their faith strong.
"Looking back on all of it, all the trials we’ve been through, and we’re all still here. We’ve still got food, a roof over our heads and each other," Dennis said.
"I still wonder a lot of days if this was really about just Britney. Maybe it was also about me, whether I was doing what I was supposed to do, and realizing maybe I wasn’t," he said.
The Bells have three other children now, Justin, 20, by Dennis’ previous marriage; Brandi, 14; and Bradlee, 8.
And in May, 18-year-old Britney Bell is going to graduate from Edgewood High School, an event that was never supposed to happen.
Britney said she plans to attend Trinity Valley Community College’s campus in Terrell before moving on to the career she knew she wanted the moment she left the hospital as an 8-year-old who wasn’t supposed to be alive.
Britney is going to become a nurse.
Her father is joyously drinking in every moment with her and the rest of his children.
"It has all made me a real strong believer," Dennis said. "People don’t realize they need to cherish what they’ve got, because in a blink of an eye, it can be gone."