Miracles happen every day. Most days we don't see them. We are usually too busy working, driving kids to sports or staring at our phones to see them. 

Last Spring, we witnessed a miracle that kept us from work, occupied our emotions while driving kids and kept "the phone" in perspective. On May 4th, I took a call from an emotionally upset hockey dad givng me "news" that one of the state's best players was very sick. The night before Peter Harrington had been hospitalized with bacterial meningitis. His brain was swelling at a rate that could take his life. Coming nearly six months after the death of Patrick Schoonover, an event that rocked our world in the Minnesota hockey community, this same community began to rally around Peter.

It was that day that Peter's rally at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis began. He had two burr holes cut in his scalp early that morning to drain fluid from his brain. Twelve hours later, his parents Paul and Jennifer learned that Peter needed immediate surgery that would take a "heroic measure" to save his life. Peter would undergo a craniectomy, which is a procedure that removes part of his skull that allowed his brain to swell outside of his skull. The next day, the Harringtons learned that had Peter not had the craniectomy, "their son would be dead, now." They were also told repeatedly that they "needed to prepare for the worst."

Outside of the hospital, the prayers and well wishes from family, people in the Mounds View school district and beyond began to fly in. Peter's dad Paul said of the first week, "we knew we weren't in this alone. the support we got from our family, friends and the hockey community was amazing." Jennifer, Peter's mom, a very private person got out of her comfort zone and posted a progress report each day on Caring Bridge. "Writing a journal is not my thing, but seeing the encouraging comments on Caring Bridge kept me going."

The next day, while induced in a coma, Peter's fight began. During a meeting with a physician, the Harringtons got the glimmer of hope they were looking for in this very dark and scary time. The doctor said to Paul and Jennifer that he had seen kids walk out of Children's who had no business leaving. "It was then that we started believing that Peter was going to be one of those kids," said Peter's dad Paul. 

May 7th was a watershed day for Peter. While connected to three racks of medication and battling a wicked infection on his brain, Peter would take the biggest test of his life. A nuclear flow test - a two hour test to measure blood flow and brain activity. "Easily, the most difficult time we faced not knowing for two hours if our son would have brain function or not," said Paul. Because there were so many moving parts in this battle, the surgeons told the Harrington's calmly and matter of factly, "he passed." No cause on their part for a celebration, they had many more fish to fry...but for the Harringtons, their hope continued to grow for a full recovery. 

With each day after the 7th, Peter continued to improve slightly. He slowly came off of the medication and was getting a positive prognosis. One doctor said to Peter, who stared at him visibly shaken by his survival said, "Peter, you are the reason I do my job."

He had many milestones at Children's including coming out of the coma, getting his chest tube removed and seeing family and friends for the first time after being in a coma for weeks. Whle there was great hope for the Harringtons, doctors kept them grounded that Peter's recovery may never be fully complete - major brain injuries have unpredictable results. 

On June 4th, Peter was moved from Children's Hospital in Minneapolis to Gillette Hospital in St. Paul for Occupational, Physical and Speech Therapy. It was here where he began his trek back to normal. On June 26, he was released from Gillette to go home to sleep in his own bed for the first time in over 50 days!

For the remaining months of Summer, Peter continued outpatient therapy three times a week. He continued to eclipse doctor and therapy expectations each week. By July 24, Peter was given 100% clearance to do whatever he physically wanted to do, once his pending cranioplasty surgery was complete. Because his progress had been expedited, Peter got his new skull and removed his protective helmet on August 19. Days later he entered tenth grade at Mounds View as normal as a tenth grader can be!

"The best gift my friends gave me was just treating me normal when I returned to school," said Peter. Having no memory of most of the month of May, Harrington learned a lot about life at a very young age, "life can slip that fast, it is important to cherish every moment...it is hard to describe how blessed I am." 

When YHH recently reached out to the Harringtons about the story, we expected this to be a hockey season where Peter would sit out and get his legs back with the hope of getting back in the game "someday down the road" if at all. Much to our surprise, Peter tried out and made the Mounds View Varsity. Repeat, Peter tried out and made the Mounds View Varsity!!! He is still not cleared for contact, but he skates every day with both the Varsity and Junior Varsity. He stil has a little loss of feeling in his left hand, but for the most part we saw a healthy normal kid with abnormally big smile on his face.

So many people reached out to help the Harringtons during their tough time, many that had never met them. "We got letters from Prior Lake, Lakeville and so on...it just blew us away the support we got from the hockey community," said Paul Harrington. "Our family cannot be more thankful for having our family in tact this year and for the support we got from the hockey community."

Peter told YHH last week, "I want to thank everyone in my family, the people from Mounds View Irondale and the greater hockey family for their prayers and encouragement."