Pennsylvania Game News - March 2022 - 22

where a paramedic asked Mike if he was
having trouble breathing. He was.
But he could still see a bit out of his
left eye.
" Then they put me under, put a breathing
tube down my throat, and that was the
last time I saw, " Mike said.
His troubles were just beginning.
DARK DAYS
Mike went to Geisinger Medical
Center, the right side of his face destroyed.
He lost that eye; doctors eventually had to
sew it shut because Mike couldn't blink.
None of the muscles on that side of his
face work even today.
He stayed a week, then transferred
to a rehabilitation center, expecting to
stay three more. Doctors hoped he might
regain vision in his left eye.
Just a week later, that hope lost, they
sent him home.
The community rallied around him.
Mike devoted more than two decades
to coaching youth baseball and junior
high and varsity football. His neighbors
remembered and " gave it all back, " Terry
said.
" Mike came home from the hospital
on May 14 or 15, and I did not cook a
meal until August, " she said. " They had
a meal train and people just responded.
We had so much food in our refrigerator
that I had to keep navigating and trying to
figure out where to put it all. People just
kept bringing food and food and food. "
Fundraisers ranging from car washes
to pancake breakfasts to bake sales were
organized, too.
Meanwhile, physical and occupational
therapists descended on their house,
teaching Mike how to get toothpaste on
a brush, know when there was enough
dressing on his salad, get around.
That was disorienting enough. But
Mike struggled with sleeping, too, as
blindness often messes with a person's
ability to tell day from night.
" That is a true thing right there, " Mike
said. " I've already fallen asleep on the
couch and Terry walks by and it's like
11:30 at night and I'll wake up and go, is
the sun out? I used to say that a lot. Is the
sun out? And she'd go no, it's like 11:30
at night. And I'd say, oh, that's right. "
Then things got worse.
Six months after he was shot, Mike
got really sick, his face swollen. He had a
giant cerebral aneurism, which the American
Association of Neurological Surgeons
describes as an abnormal swelling of an
artery in the brain, which can lead to
stroke, coma or death.
Likely a result of his gunshot wound,
it was the largest aneurism Mike's doctor
ever saw. It required surgery.
" It was very delicate. It took him a
couple months to come back from that, "
Terry said.
Those were dark days.
Mike put on a brave front for those
around him, including his devastated
children, Terry said. But alone, in quiet
moments, he struggled.
She did, too. Mike's high-school
sweetheart and wife of 42 years, Terry
was swamped, not only serving as his
nurse - putting multiple ointments in his
eyes every few hours around the clock
for weeks, for example - but handling
Mike Hobbins, right, of Mifflinburg, addresses a Hunter-Trapper Education class at the Buffalo
Valley Sportsmen's Association in September. Mike's life experience makes his message of hunter
safety all the more meaningful and captivating for audiences. X-rays showing the pellets forever
lodged inside him are among the images that accompany his presentation.
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Pennsylvania Game News - March 2022

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