Excerpt from the Book

March 16, 1958. This was the year I was born. I was born a blue baby with brain damage. My name is Marc Pulver. I almost died at birth because there was a complication that the ambilicle cord was wrapped around my neck not too good I was under observation for a few days before I was given a clean bill of health to go home but I had a long road to go after that. I was given a clean bill of health from the hospital and I was allowed to go home so I went home from the hospital and here is where my life begins.

I am definatly living testimony that I survived such an ordeal and I am what I call my self by the grace of God I am known as the miracle kid because I was not supose to make it. When you have an ordeal like that what are the chances of survivel one in a miilion that is why I say it was by the grace of God that I made it because the Lord gave the doctors the wearwithall to bring me back to life. I was clinicly dead but the doctors were able to perform a miracle on me by the grace of God that is why I call myself the miracle kid.

►COMMENT: Mother Sybil◄

My pregnancy for the most part, was pretty much the same as the first two up until about the seventh when I started to stain. My doctor put me on what I think was called Stilbestrol, which later on had been shown to be harmful to pregnant women. I was confined to bed rest most of time until my delivery. After delivering, I awoke and through hazy eyes tried to put a name to the face looking down at me. In a few seconds I recognized my children’s pediatrician. Why was he here? I never expected to see him at that moment staring at me from the foot of my bed. He was not in attendance at my previous births. Was something wrong? I asked what he was doing here and he told me that my doctor, the one who delivered my baby, had called him because he did not like the heartbeat he heard. I felt the ceiling come crashing down around me, but he assured me he would do all in his power and stay with the baby as long as necessary. I soon learned that Marc was born a blue baby. He was placed in an incubator and ten days later he was able to come home.

We lived in a nice three bedroom house with two baths a big yard and a swimming pool in hot sunny south florida. I didn’t speak till I was five. I lived with my two brothers and my Mom and Dad. We had a house keeper from time to time. We had a few come and go in the time we lived in our two bedroom house. But there is one who stands out from all of the rest. Her name is Hattie Wrender. She was with us for about ten years. She also helped raise me when I was about five or six years old. She would disapline me teach me things cook meals for us and she would stay over night also durung the times Mom and Dad went out of town as well. She would even read versus of the Bible to me and tell me the importance of prayer and how God works his miracles. Hattie you are a good soul and I am glad you were a part of my life for so many years. You were like a mother to me and it has never been forgotton. I will always hold you in my true memory with love and apreciation from the bottom of my heart for ever and ever God bless you Hattie.

I had a few friends around the block like most kids do. I always felt that the other kids were always one step ahead of me. I could not think and rationalize like others could do. I was always behind the eight ball. Not only did I not speak I could not read and write at all. The only things I like to do was to play with toys and watch a little television when it was on and if I liked what was on I would watch and if not I would look for some other interest that I had which one of the things I like to do was to play with my toy blocks. The toy blocks that I had were made of wood with letter on all four sides of them.

Even as a todler Mom would take me different places like the grocery store department store a resturaunt or the zoo. Mom would recite the ABCs to me while we were driving in the car she would read words on the bill board sign and spell them out to me and tell me what they were and what they meant. Mom used to always as a todler teach me things while we were in the car going someplace. For example there would be a picture of a cow on a bill board and the word milk on it and she would spell it slowly so I would hear the pronouciation of the word milk and that is one example of how she taught me. She wanted me to obsorb into my brain what she was telling me. Mom got me toy blocks with letters on them hoping I would learn form playing with them. Mom also got me flash cards as well with numbers on them. On one side of the card there were two mubers one on top and one on the bottom with a line drawn under the bottom number. On the other side of the card was the answer to for example how much is 2+2 and on the other side of the card wouild say 4. That is how I learned to add and subtract. I went to this place called John Hopkins to be tested what was wrong with me why I was not learning things in school.