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Nineteen-year-old college student Brryan Jackson is a living miracle.
When he was an infant, his divorced father – a blood transfusionist at a local hospital – intentionally injected him with AIDS-infected blood, intending to kill him and dodge having to pay child support.
Instead, Brryan defied the odds. He lived. Doctors say tests have shown no trace of the virus in his body for two years. Listening to him speak at youth conferences or as he plays his guitar, it’s hard to believe that he lost his hearing when he was seven years old – due to the massive amount of prescription drugs that were keeping him alive.
“Just because I can’t hear does not mean I don’t have a voice,” Jackson said. “God has blessed me to have such a strong voice, to have a story.”
And what a story he has. Nobody knew that his father had attempted to kill him at age 11 months. Instead, he seemed to be a normal little boy. But then, as the five-year-old was about to go off to kindergarten, he became mysteriously ill.
“I went from being a playful, happy, energetic five-year-old to this bloated, feverish sick kid,” Brryan remembers.
Doctors discovered the cause. His father confessed.
When Judge Ellsworth Cundiff sentenced him to life in prison, the judge said Brryan’s dad belonged in the same category as “the worst war criminal” and added: “I believe when God finally calls you, you are going to burn in hell from here to eternity.”
His father got a life sentence, but Brryan received a death sentence.
Yet, he did not die. He has fought long and hard. Even so, growing up with the disease has not been easy. Brryan was shunned – the AIDS boy. He was not allowed to use school water fountains. He was restricted to a single restroom. Parents were afraid of letting their children be around him. He wasn’t included in birthday parties, Scouts or Little League baseball.
He’s forgiven his father – although he legally changed the spelling of his first name to make it different from his dad’s. And Brryan has a girlfriend. He says Brandi gives him the strength to fight the disease: “It’s pretty remarkable, I went from full blown aids, on my death bed, given five months to live, and here I am 19 years old, living on 15 years of borrowed time.”
Now he only takes three pills daily and visits the doctor every three months.
Doctors say his recovery is nothing short of a miracle – no AIDS virus has been undetectable in Brryan’s blood for two straight years now.
“My muscles are actually building, they aren’t breaking down,” he says.
Such experiences have prompted Brryan to spread awareness about the disease. He founded a non-profit, Hope Is Vital – H.I.V. He spends every summer at Camp Kindle, a program that sponsors summer camps throughout the nation for HIV-positive children.
He mentors other HIV-positive kids.
And he shares his story with anyone who will listen.
“You can either look at the blessings that come from life, you know, look at all the problems as opportunities for blessings or you can just ignore them and let them run you and let them control your life,” he says. “I just decided, I want to put an end to this, I want to make a difference.”
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Here is a short video that tells some of his story:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o41ITLxyO44&feature=player_embedded#at=91And here is another video in which Brryan relates the experience in his own words: