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By Dorris R. Wilcox
As told to Richard N. Côté
When a physician told her that she’d probably spend the rest of her life in bed, paralyzed from the neck down, Dorris Wilcox replied, “I’m sorry, Honey, but I just don’t have that much time to waste. We’ve got to do a whole lot better than that.”
In 1989 Dorris Wilcox, then 61, was stricken with Guillian Barré Syndrome, leaving her helpless and paralyzed from the neck down. She refused to accept the prognosis of a slow recovery from the rare, life-threatening disease. Combining aggressive self-education, massive doses of positive thinking, a barrage of nutritional supplements, and unshakable faith in God’s healing power, she achieved 95% recovery within 18 months.
In her forthcoming book, No Time For Tears, she sheds new light on the treatment of this rare condition. She also gives sufferers from all debilitating afflictions the tools to acquire and maintain the positive mindset they need to triumph over their own adversity.
In the spring of 1989, life was good for Dorris. The 61-year-old Dumpling Valley, Tennessee native had everything she ever wanted, including a thriving career as a nationally-known interior designer. Returning home on a plane from Hilton Head Island, SC, she felt unusually tired. She wrote off the muscle aches and lack of energy to the intensive work she had just completed on a major hotel redesign project. Walking down the stairs of her home the next day, she felt her legs turn to jelly. When she woke up hours later, she was laying on the floor, drenched in sweat and unable to move any muscle in her body below the neck.
Perceptive doctors at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, Knoxville, diagnosed her as having Guillian Barré Syndrome, a rare neural disorder. By Sunday afternoon, Dorris was completely paralyzed and spent seventeen days in Intensive Care. There she underwent a dangerous, painful blood-cleansing process known as plasma phoresis (plasma exchange). Six different times, most of the blood was extracted from her body, cleaned of harmful antibodies, and returned.
During one session she suffered clinical death and had an out-of-body experience. When her heart stopped, her consciousness rose from her lifeless body. From above, she saw the doctors and nurses gathering around her corpse, administering life-saving resuscitation techniques. She felt as though she had been lifted up on a cloud by angels. Dorris describes that she saw the face of Jesus. He held his hands out, but never touched her. She describes it as the most beautiful experience she ever had. But in an instant, as she heard the doctor say, “She’s got a pulse,” she was suddenly thrust back into the hospital room. For Dorris, the event was a clear sign: God still had work for her to do on Earth. From that moment on, she had a burning purpose: to use her second gift of life to recover -- and to help others triumph over their own medical tragedies.
One of her doctors was deeply pessimistic about Dorris’s chances for recovery. She was told that she’d probably spend the rest of her life in bed, paralyzed from the neck down. With her characteristic directness, Dorris replied, “I’m sorry, Honey, but I just don’t have that much time to waste. I have a business to run. We’ve got to do a whole lot better than that.” Even while she was in the Intensive Care Unit, she demanded that her decorating foreman be permitted to visit for ten minutes each morning to get instructions for the day’s work.
Dorris spent 17 days in the Intensive Care Unit, five months in their hospital, 3-1/2 months in their Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center, Knoxville, and an additional 18 months as a Neal Center outpatient. At the Center she had to re-learn activities she had always taken for granted, such as picking up a fork, writing a check, and combing her hair. When a therapist told her it might take years to regain full use of her hands, Dorris told her, “Honey, I need more help than that. What ways can you find to speed that up?” Dorris regained full use of her hands within six months. She believes that it was her faith in God and her natural-born determination to succeed which helped her achieve 95% recovery from her illness.
After two years of intense learning, positive visualizations, and hard work, she had not only recovered, but her doctors at the Patricia Neal Center were referring ailing patients to her. The healers knew that her “take charge” attitude and inspiring example could help them, too, overcome their perception of being permanently handicapped.
Once a paralyzed, helpless victim incapable of moving even a finger, Dorris now walks with only a slight limp. She now works full-time as a caregiver in the private sector and does volunteer work as a counselor to victims of tragic medical misfortune, including those stricken with Guillian Barré Syndrome. On November 16, 1990, Dorris Wilcox received The Patricia Neal Award For Excellence for outstanding recovery from a debilitating illness. The awards are presented annually to people who have resumed independent lifestyles after rehabilitation. Today it is hard to spot any evidence of her former affliction.
Dorris still keeps busy with occasional decorating projects, but she spends most of her days helping rehabilitate a patient whose story parallels her own. Dorris loves God, cherishes life, and celebrates the opportunity to help others in need. She believes that her faith pulled her through the bad times, and she looks to each new day being more beautiful than the day before. A survivor in every sense of the word, she is living proof that if you have a fighting spirit, there is always hope. She uses her personal experiences to tell others that when bad things happen, faith, love, and hard work can overcome any adversity and triumph over any tragedy. In No Time For Tears, she shares the powerful tools and techniques she employed to triumph over adversity.
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