Faith sustains family through dark days of son’s illness

Posted: 8/18/06

Faith sustains family through
dark days of son’s illness

By David Alvey

Special to the Baptist Standard

GARLAND—Scott and Emily Hall had big plans this summer. He intended to teach their 15-year-old son, Ryan, to drive. The whole family had volunteered to work in Vacation Bible School at their church. And they wanted to take a road trip to the Grand Canyon.

Instead, the Halls found themselves weathering the most difficult storm of their lives when a mysterious lung disease claimed Ryan’s life.

Ryan Hall, age 15, died June 20 after the sudden onset of a mysterious illness one month earlier.

“Sometimes God calms the storm. But sometimes God lets the storm rage and calms his child,” Hall said. “It’s a quote I heard about 20 years ago, and it keeps coming back to me.”

Last spring, Ryan was a healthy young man with a zest for life. Ranked in the top 5 percent of his freshman class in the International Baccalaureate Program at Garland High School, he had only missed one day of school all year, and that was to attend a funeral.

On May 17, he arrived home from swim team practice with an odd rash. The itchy pink spots progressed as he developed a high fever, shortness of breath, and quickly deteriorated into a critical condition.

Ryan arrived at Children’s Medical Center’s emergency room May 25 by ambulance and immediately was admitted to the intensive care unit. Doctors initially thought they were dealing with a bad case of viral pneumonia.

For nearly a month, Ryan was kept heavily sedated while doctors tried to treat the aggressive and rapidly progressive lung disease. Some of the best doctors in the country were called in, but they were unable to identify what had attacked Ryan’s lungs.

After weeks on a heart-lung machine and respirator, the stress ultimately proved too much for his body. He died June 20.

“We’ve been Christians for 30 years,” said his father, a deacon at The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, where he and his wife are involved in children’s ministries and missions programs. “If we can’t put our faith to use now, then what good is it?”

“When we first lost Ryan, I just wanted to go to heaven and be with him as soon as I could,” Mrs. Hall added. “But I realized God still has a purpose for my life. There’s a reason why I am still here. So, I have to go on trying to fulfill God’s purpose for my life.”

Ryan’s 13-year-old sister, Mallory, “has a great attitude,” her father noted. “She says God had a reason for taking Ryan, and he’s enjoying God’s presence in heaven. Ryan wouldn’t want us to mope around.”

The Hall family fulfilled their commitment to help with The Heights’ Vacation Bible School at Hawaiian Falls water park in Garland.

“It was hard,” Mrs. Hall acknowledged. “We had season passes the first several years the park was open. We spent a lot of time together at Hawaiian Falls, so it brought back a lot of memories. But it also was good to take our minds off our own sorrow and serve others.”

Hall still carries a prayer pager that buzzed around the clock while Ryan was in the hospital.

“The church paid for it through September,” he explained. “It doesn’t vibrate as often now, but I know people are still praying for us. We’ve heard from people we didn’t even know—people from all over the world—who are praying over us. Ryan’s story has impacted many lives.”

Until Ryan’s death, his family had lived a “fairytale” life, relatively untouched by sorrow, Hall noted. Now, they know what it means to go through the lowest times imaginable, but they also experienced a depth of love they had never known before.

“God has taught us so much through this ordeal,” Hall said. “We never knew how many good people are around. We’ve been amazed by how much people can love, care and share. Our lives are forever changed.”