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Hello Candace,
Did you know that March is “National Brain Injury Awareness” month? Unless you have a child or family member with a brain injury it’s unlikely you know there even is a “month” set aside for such awareness.
I am more than aware because my son, Travis, was run over by a car when he was 4 years old. The driver was on prescription meds and distracted by her baby in the back seat. Travis was outside with his friends, sisters and neighbor children. We lived in a cul-de-sac, I thought we were safe.
That day will forever be etched in my memory. I was on the phone when I heard my daughter, Cari scream, “Travis is dead!” I ran out the door and helped lift the car off his precious little 4-year-old body. It’s true what they say about strength in a crisis.
I rode to the hospital in the ambulance with him and cursed when other drivers wouldn’t pull over. I listened as the doctors told me he probably would not survive the surgery and if he did, he might be permanently brain injured. I just told them to fix whatever was wrong and left the room. He was in surgery for more than 6 hours that day and they told me they didn’t know what to fix first.
He was in a coma for 4 days after surgery. To me it was a lifetime. We had to talk to him constantly because they believed it would help him come out of his coma. We talked about everything and nothing. The first thing he did as he was coming out of the coma was to kiss the air. We fought each other over that railing so we could kiss and be kissed by him. We couldn’t have been more grateful that day.
The hospital staff put a picture of him in his bed so he could see what he looked like because his head was so swollen and unrecognizable. His little body was so torn and broken that I thought he would never heal, but his body did the best it could. He lost his spleen so he is more likely to develop infections and his brain is not the same. It isn’t as bad as they predicted but he has been left with permanent learning disabilities.
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