Hi my name is Christie, I am writing this incredible story for my son Brett. August 10, 2014.. I received a phone call from a hospital in Toledo Ohio, to inform me my son had been life flighted and was in critical condition.
I was three hours away in Columbus Ohio. I don't remember much else, except screaming for my husband. The three-hour ride was torturous, I begged God not to take my son. After road detours, trains and slow traffic, we arrived at the hospital. Brett was just coming out of surgery. Every piece of medical equipment known to man was attached to him. He was wrapped in bubble wrap.
His day previous to his accident had started out with riding dirt bikes with a friend from Columbus, they had bailed hay and went to a bonfire.
They became separated during the ride home, Brett wrecked along side of the road, the area is very rural, no one knows how the accident happened or how long he had laid before a passerby found him and called 911. Estimated guess was 3 to 4 hours.
I knew this journey was going to be between me and God. I found the chapel and a wonderful chaplain named Julie.
The doctors said the next 24 hours would crucial, broken bones, lacerations, a brain shunt. Day two he was whisk away to surgery for a perforated bowel, signing a consent form that he may not come through the surgery was heart wrenching.
Day 3 we were told his kidneys were failing and he would need dialysis. Dialysis is like running a marathon to your body. It was during a dialysis session that his vitals plummeted and in came the crash cart.
About a week later after no outwards signs of communication, he opened his beautiful blue eyes. The stare was vacant the left eye was all askew, but it was wonderful to feel he was coming back.
Brett's mouth was wired shut due to a broken jaw. Brett left Nuero Intensive care to go to step down unit, we there probably about a week when he started to crash again.
Doctors and nurses scrambling. The doctor came out to tell me they don't know what the problem is but, they are taking him to surgery.
at 4:30 in the morning the doctor returned to say they found a huge hematoma and he removed what he could. Brett was returned to intensive care. We were in icu for about a week, it was during this time that Brett's kidneys started to function again.
Not long after that we returned to Columbus, Brett in an ambulance, attended by 6 paramedics for the 3-hour trip.
Brett still did not communicate. Did not follow commands. We arrived back in Columbus Ohio at a facility that accepts patients with trachea and vents. I talked to Brett each day refusing to accept that he didn't hear or understand me. I put family pictures around his room. We were there for 8 weeks, they were able to wean him from the vent and gradually capped his trachea. One day out of no where he spoke, calling out his nurse’s name.
We eventually left the facility for rehab at Dodd hall at the Ohio State University.
I brought him home on December 4th 2014 4 months after his accident. He was wheelchair bound and needed 24-hour care.
We are still in rehab. learning to deal with some left side paralysis. Anger management.
Today he is free of the wheelchair, and is taking some art classes, he has survived where there was doubt of that happening.
I will always give God the glory for restoring my son to me, my little chapel in Toledo where I spent countless hours on my knees, my wonderful Chaplain Julie whom held me when I didn't think I could go on.
