Caroline sang to her comatose son

Nearly two years ago when Margie was recovering from surgery at the Alaska Native Medical Center, I stopped to check in on a friend in the Intensive Care Unit. There I saw another friend, Caroline Cannon of Point Hope. Her adult son, Leroy Oenga, was in a coma - word was that he had been declared brain dead. Caroline was not giving up. She was praying and asking for prayers. I recall looking at Leroy as he lay comatose in bed and feeling so bad for him and bad for his mother. The situation appeared truly hopeless. Yet his mother clung to hope – futile hope, it appeared. On this night in Nuiqsut, Caroline recalled the ordeal of being told Leroy was brain-dead and that she should pull the plug. Instead, she sat at his side, prayed, and sang hymns to him. Here, she sings one of those hymns: "We've got the power in the name of the Lord..." While he has some health problems to deal with, Caroline told us how her son recovered mentally and physically and today is building a life with his wife and young family.