Cedars, December 2017

December 2017 4 COVER STORY by Zach Krauss J im Cato experienced a providential brain surgery during Cedarville’s re- cent mission trip to Houston. Cato, associate vice president of Chris- tian Ministries at Cedarville University, went with students to help with Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. But Cato’s Fall Break plans changed on the Wednesday of the trip. He reported headaches and migraines and went to an urgent care center. He was informed that he was dehydrated. They gave him fluids and sent him on his way. As the night went on, however, Cato’s headache pains began to in- tensify, and around midnight, he woke up Keith Holcomb, the assistant director for global outreach, and asked to be taken to a hospital emergency room. After what Cato described as an “ad- venture of finding a nearby hospital in a foreign city,” he was admitted. He was di- agnosed with a non-cancerous brain tumor, but he need to have it removed. Cato was transferred to the Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston where he was placed under the care of Dr. Arthur Day, a neurosurgeon for the Mischer Neu- roscience Institute. Unbenownst to Cato and his team, Dr. Day is a specialist in type of surgery Cato needed. Day has served as the president for the Society of Neurological Surgeons, as well as the director chair of the department for Neurological Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s hospital. The next day, the staff administered an MRI, and by Friday, Day had completed the surgery and Cato was on his way to re- covery. The swiftness and efficiency of the process, along with the confidence and skill of the doctors astonished both Cato and the students on the team. Everyone involved on the trip attested to one thing: because of the resources available in Houston, Jim Cato’s participation in the fall break trip was pure- ly the providence of God. While Cato was in the hospital and un- able to help with the rest of the trip, students said that the staff pitched in and helped fill the gap more than expected. The drivers who attended the trip were chartered from the company Light Riders, which supports ministries such as Cedarville’s. Over the break, students said that the bus drivers were eager to be able to help work and sup- port the team, which took part of the load off of the rest of the staff as well. Cato said that the hospital will need to do a final procedure, probably in December, using a gamma knife treatment process in order to remove a very small portion of the tumor remaining, that, if left, could regrow. Cato Receives Providential Surgery photo by Lauren Jacobs Jim Cato, associate vice president of Christian Ministries, is recovering quickly after undergoing brain surgery to remove a tumor discovered while serving in Houston.