‘It’s a miracle’: Why this local SC politician has a lot to be thankful for this year

Greg Hembree vividly remembers two moments from his medically induced coma: encouragement from his wife and a promise from his oldest daughter.

As family and friends gather at the state senator’s Little River home this Thanksgiving no doubt giving thanks for Greg’s rapid recovery, Nora Hembree Battle probably also is thankful her dad isn’t holding her to that promise.

Placed in the coma by doctors after contracting a staph infection, Greg Hembree recalls overhearing Nora ask a doctor if her dad would remember anything she told him, and the doctor assured her that he wouldn’t.

“So she comes in and says, ‘Dad, you gotta pull through,’” he said. “Then she said if I do, she’d have another baby and let me name it.”

Nora said the nurses encouraged her and her siblings to talk to him, and she figured the thought of a new grandchild would be most likely to get through to him because she knows how much he enjoys being a grandfather.

When he woke up from the coma after eight days on a ventilator, the first thing he said to his daughter was, “Hey Nora, when you getting started on that new baby?,” he said, widening his eyes and opening his mouth to mimic the look on her face.

Nora joked that maybe she’ll follow through if her dad starts taking on more babysitting responsibilities.

He isn’t insisting she keep the promise — Nora already has 4-year-old and 1-year-old sons — but he enjoys telling the story.

It’s been less than four months since Hembree called 911 to take him to what turned out to be a life-threatening hospital visit.

“Right over there,” he said, pointing across his living room to where he was standing when he first started feeling a headache he described as “like someone hit me in the head with a baseball bat.”

Brain aneurysm

The 58-year-old was hospitalized July 26 for a brain aneurysm, and his condition worsened after contracting pneumonia and a blood infection, likely from an IV.

Aneurysms in general don’t cause symptoms, according to Dr. Joseph Cheatle, a neurosurgeon at Grand Strand Medical Center. Cheatle did not treat Hembree, but spoke to The Sun News about the medical condition.

If an aneurysm ruptures, it can lead to a subarachnoid hemorrhage, which is bleeding in the space between the brain and the tissue covering the brain, he said. Such a hemorrhage is unsurvivable without immediate medical care, and 10-15 percent of those who experience it will die before receiving care.

The mortality rate is about 50 percent within six months, Cheatle said, because the hemorrhage often leads to other medical issues.

Patients need to be monitored 24 hours a day in an Intensive Care Unit for at least two weeks, and the recovery process typically takes 12-18 months, he said, noting that he indefinitely follows up with patients that suffered brain injuries.

Regarding the blood infection, Cheatle said the risk of infection increases the longer someone remains in long-term, in-patient care, but it wouldn’t necessarily impact recovery from a brain injury.

Hembree spent 23 days in the hospital, but no one would know it by looking at him now. He lost 25 pounds, but quickly gained that back — mostly by eating pies friends and family brought him — and sped up his recovery by taking frequent naps, he said.

“I’m back to my full schedule (as a senator and attorney) and training for a triathlon,” Greg Hembree proclaims, adding that his recovery happened a lot quicker than his doctors projected.

Renee Hembree, his wife of 33 years, called it a miracle that he survived the medical emergency, let alone recovered so quickly.

“When the doctor tells you it’s a miracle, you know it’s a miracle,” she said.

Call to public service

Renee had prepared for her husband not to return to the state Senate because she didn’t know how he’d react to the trauma, she said, but when she asked him about it a few days after he woke from his coma, he never wavered.

“He never doubted his call (to public service),” she said.

The Republican has served as South Carolina’s District 28 senator representing Horry and Dillon counties since 2013 and was previously the 15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor.

Fellow state Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, of Murrells Inlet, said everyone in the Senate was elated to see Hembree recover.

Goldfinch visited Hembree the day he was initially hospitalized, he said, and the infection “took the wind out of all our sails” after his recovery from the aneurysm looked promising.

Hembree’s importance to Horry County and the state can’t be overstated, Goldfinch said, calling him a “tireless titan” for improving education in the state. Hembree likely will become chairman of the Senate’s Education Committee in January.

Jimmy Richardson, the current 15th Judicial Circuit Solicitor, said his predecessor revolutionized the way they ran court, incorporating technology in a way that’s now being followed by solicitors statewide.

More memorable than Hembree’s technological advances was his message to his team.

“Greg’s big motto was ‘Do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons,’ and we continue to say that each and every day,” Richardson said. “It helps us do what’s right.”

Giving thanks

While the Hembrees are well-known for their public service, they found that the public more than returned the favor during Greg’s hospital stay.

Asked what they are thankful for ahead of Thanksgiving, Greg and Renee Hembree both described the overwhelming support their family received from the community.

Greg said more than 400 get-well soon cards were delivered to his hospital room, and Renee recalled that friends, family and strangers put meals in their garage refrigerator every night, cut the grass and even paid for their children to hire babysitters.

“I like to write thank-you notes, but honestly there’s a large chunk of time I just don’t remember,” Renee said.

The couple also expressed thanks for Greg’s medical care, their children who sacrificed parts of their own lives during his hospital stay and their grandchildren that he gets to continue seeing grow.

“Someone told me I’m getting a second chance, but I told them I really liked my first chance,” Greg said. “I’ve always been appreciative of my blessings, maybe just a little more so now.”

David Weissman: @WeissmanMBO; 843-606-0305