Ugandan teenager welcomed in time to save his life by Georgian couple

Lina Portman4 weeks ago

0 4 minutes read

When Olivia Ricketts-Inman looks back on the last 10 years of her life, the same word keeps coming up: miracle.

In 2014, Ricketts-Inman — whose family founded Prince Avenue Baptist Church and Prince Avenue Christian School — moved to the Republic of Uganda to volunteer for Ekisa Ministries, which works with children with disabilities. It was in Uganda that she met Gideon Abiriga, 6 years old, born in the isolated village of Bujwaya and suffering from an often fatal blood disease, sickle cell anemia.

After a semester abroad, Ricketts-Inman returned to Athens but couldn't get Uganda or Gideon out of her mind. While a student at the University of Georgia – where she earned a bachelor's degree in social work in 2018 and a master's degree in 2019 – she returned to Uganda over the summer and over Christmas break, and eventually lived almost four years after graduating.

All the while, her bond with Gideon grew stronger, even as it weakened through various battles with illness.

“When I moved there, we had a strong bond, and every time he got sick I took him to the hospital and we became very close,” she said. “Everyone knew that for anything Gideon related, they would come find me.”

'On the string'

While living in Uganda, Gideon underwent two major surgeries and Ricketts-Inman became her adoptive mother. She wanted to bring Gideon to Atlanta for medical treatment and before his first visit to the United States, paperwork (and a missing birth certificate) led to an 11.^th miracle hour.

“He had to get a passport; it was the craziest process,” she said. “We probably made 30 trips to the capital and had to go to court for me to get guardianship. They had to bend the law a little bit for me to stop him. We finally got his visa from the embassy the morning we left – it went smoothly. »

Over the next year, Gideon would make two more trips to Georgia, with the second visit being frightening for everyone involved. In November 2023, Ricketts-Inman — who was set to marry Augusta native George Inman on Dec. 9 — picked Gideon up from the airport and knew something was wrong.

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“He was having a sickle cell crisis, which is common for him,” she explained. “He was in pain and didn’t feel well. I took him home and he felt better. He went to bed and woke up on November 14 and said he felt better but wanted to continue sleeping. A few hours later I tried to wake him up and he wouldn't wake up. He was totally absent.

Gideon was rushed to Piedmont Regional Hospital in Athens, where he underwent emergency surgery for a bifrontal epidural hematoma (brain hemorrhage). He then took a helicopter to Children's Hospital Atlanta, where he underwent a second craniotomy and remained in a coma for about two weeks. Ricketts-Inman said he miraculously emerged from the coma with his cognitive abilities intact, although a tragic residue of Gideon's coma was the loss of his eyesight.

“The doctors told us they had no idea why this happened,” she said. “It could have been caused by sickle cell disease or just a weird genetic thing. We have no idea. If this had happened in Uganda, he wouldn't be alive, and all of this happened less than 24 hours after he landed in the United States. »

Gideon remained in the hospital for several months and was present when the couple got married days before their planned wedding in Athens.

“We asked Gideon to be at the wedding. …We were supposed to get married on December 9, 2023,” Ricketts-Inman said. “On December 6, 2023, Gideon and I got married in the hospital. Technically, Gideon and I got married in the hospital chapel. We bought him a tuxedo and wheeled him to the chapel. Then we had our big wedding on December 9th.

“He is incredible”

Realizing that Gideon had little or no chance of survival in Uganda, the couple filed for guardianship in court and brought him home to Augusta, where, in March, he enrolled at Westside High School. Ricketts-Inman said a decision on Gideon's conservatorship could be made as soon as late June.

Although Gideon's mother died shortly after his birth, he still communicates with his two older brothers in Uganda, and with his residency situation sorted out, he and Ricketts-Inman plan a visit. Ricketts-Inman said Gideon's lack of eyesight has not dampened his zest for life, noting that he enjoys listening to movies, TV shows and audiobooks, enjoys playing cards and swimming.

“He’s adapted incredibly well,” she said. “He’s the best kid. Everyone who met him would say the same thing. He is incredible.

Ricketts-Inman may not have chosen to start her marriage with a 16-year-old son, but she sometimes wonders if she really had any say in the matter.

“A lot of people ask me why I chose to do this, but I don’t think I really had a choice,” she said. “When they called me and asked if (I was going to host) Gideon, I thought, 'How can I say no?' And things like that kept happening – it was dominoes coming from there. My husband and I obviously didn't think we'd have a 16 year old son at this point in our marriage, but here we are. And we are super happy.

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“When I came back here, I was constantly worried about Gideon because I was the person watching over him all the time. When I left, I didn't know who was going to watch him. Even though the circumstances that led to all of this were difficult, sad and unfortunate, I now don't have to worry because I can check on him every day. He is with me and he is safe.

And Gideon can't wait to one day share his story with the world and detail the miracles that brought him to where he is today.

“Gideon has been through a lot and he is so wise in dealing with it,” said Ricketts-Inman, who takes her son to weekly doctor's appointments in Atlanta. “He keeps saying, 'I don't know why this happened to me, but I think this is God's way of sharing my story and encouraging others.' He said he wanted to write a book and he wanted to be a speaker and tell his story to everyone. He is the best.”

Lina Portman

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