I am a proud member of the Shields of Long Island. The Shields is a fraternal group of police officers who live on Long Island and work for many different police departments. At each of the six yearly meetings there is an officer-of-the-month award as well as a guest speaker.
As the guest speaker chairperson, I had to find someone special every month. I was fortunate to find John Carlsen; for through John I met his son, Danny.
At that time, John Carlsen was a deputy inspector with the Nassau County, New York, Police Department. He was the deputy commanding officer of the Marine/Aviation Bureau. He and his wife, Kathleen, had a son named Danny. Danny was a unique child. I don't like to say he was handicapped, because what others considered handicapped never stopped Danny.
John came to the Shields meeting because he had a story to tell, a story about Danny.
Before Danny was born, doctors told his parents there were problems. Ultrasound showed a condition named hydrocephalus, more commonly referred to as "water on the brain." There were suggestions made to terminate the pregnancy. After a great deal of discussion, prayer, and tears, Kathleen and John decided they would have their child and love him no matter what.
On June 6, 1983, Danny was born. Not only did he have hydrocephalus, but he also had spina bifida and other complications. Within an hour of his birth, Danny underwent dangerous, but necessary surgery. Danny wasn't expected to survive the surgery or to live long afterward, but he did. Again, doctors told Kathleen and John that if Danny lived, he would never walk or talk. Kathleen and John never gave up hope and never stopped praying. Someone was listening.
He grew up to be a loving, wonderful child. Danny went to school and had many friends. None of his friends looked at Danny as being handicapped; he just used special equipment to get around, and get around he did. Danny was always in the center of what was going on in the neighborhood. He competed in the New York State Games for the Physically Challenged for six years and won more than twenty gold medals. His friends from school and the neighborhood came to the games to cheer him on. Thanks to Danny, they learned to see what a person could do, not what a person couldn't do.
Danny also became a Youth Ambassador for the March of Dimes and held the position for a number of years. He was a natural for the job. He had a warm smile and the gift of gab, a born politician. When introduced to Michael Crawford, the star of Phantom of the Opera in New York City, Danny introduced himself as the March of Dimes Youth Ambassador, and then asked Crawford, "What do you do around here?" Crawford looked dumbfounded, a Broadway star upstaged by a five-year-old.
Helping the March of Dimes was important to Danny. He met many celebrities while doing it. Every time his photo appeared in the paper, he called his father at work and said, "Hey, Dad, I'm famous again!"
Having something that made him different from other children never stopped Danny or his family. He and his parents did everything other families do, maybe even more. They did the big things: baseball games, Disneyworld, and the Smoky Mountains by helicopter. They also did the little things that are important for all families: They went out to dinner, to the movies, had family birthdays, entertained family and friends. Danny was so well known and liked, that in 1994, his community invited him to be the official lighter of the village Christmas tree.
Danny endured many surgeries during his childhood and always persevered. He seemed to give strength to the people around him and had an amazing sense of humor and a quick wit. At the same time, he was sensitive. He wasn't embarrassed when he was hugged and kissed in front of his friends.
Danny was one of a kind.
For a while, John was the commanding officer of Emergency Service Bureau of the Nassau County Police Department. Danny loved to be around police officers, and the officers loved his visits. Like many kids, Danny wanted to be a cop. He would write his own police reports about the activities in the neighborhood. He told his parents that he was going to be a police officer, just like his dad.
This left John and Kathleen with a problem. As Danny was growing up, they always encouraged him to do his best. They told him he could be anything he wanted to be. He was a wonderful son with tremendous strengths. After all the encouragement they had given their son, how could they tell him that the one thing he really wanted was beyond his reach?
Then one day in August 1995, Danny collapsed. He stopped breathing. He had developed a heart infection, myocarditis. His parents called 911, and Danny's heroes–the police–responded. They came with their patrol cars and ambulances. John gave his son CPR.
All the officers helped, doing whatever they could. They rushed their friend, the child who wanted to be just like them, to the hospital. Doctors did their best, but to no avail. There had been no heartbeat for forty minutes. John was in the room with Danny, holding his hand and telling him to keep fighting. The monitor gave a few beats, and then it was over.
Few people know the agony of trying to save their own child and losing. As devastated as they were, John and Kathleen decided to let Danny give the gift of sight to people in need. Doctors harvested his corneas and sent them to other hospitals. Danny, who never stopped doing nice things for other people, would now let two other people see the world through his unjaded eyes.
John and Kathleen were amazed when more than one thousand people attended Danny's wake. It seemed as if everyone came to pay their respects. His friends and relatives, the school bus drivers, his teachers from school, and of course his special friends–his police officers–all came to say goodbye to their friend.
The day of Danny's funeral was a typical, hot summer day on Long Island. Danny received full police honors. Members of the Emergency Service Bureau were his pallbearers. Rows of police officers stood at attention and saluted while the bagpipes played. School crossing guards stood in formation at the entrance to the church. A police motorcycle escort led the procession to the cemetery. When the cortege entered the cemetery, a special honor guard of mounted officers, and an honor guard of his friends from Emergency Services met him. All the officers were saluting and crying at the same time.
Heaven's police department had just appointed a special little police officer.
A few months after the funeral, Kathleen and John wanted to share Danny with the people who received his eyes. They contacted the eye bank and asked if a meeting could be arranged. It is a complicated task, and it takes time. It is also the recipient's decision whether or not to meet the family. After a while, a letter arrived. A young man, one of the recipients, wanted to meet Kathleen and John. He wanted to thank them for allowing Danny's cornea to be donated, and for giving him the gift of sight. Kathleen and John wanted to let this young man know what a wonderful child Danny had been. When they met this man, Ray, they realized once again that God and Danny work in mysterious ways. Ray was about to lose the sight in one eye due to an infection. Danny's cornea saved not only Ray's sight, but his job as well.
Ray is a New York City police officer.
Kathleen and John looked at one another and knew Danny, their special child, finally got the job he always wanted. In his own unique way, Danny is working the streets as a police officer, just as he always wanted.