Things were just kind of flowing along. We had normal daily routines and we were
pretty much like any other normal family until October 25th happened and that
completely changed everything.
They stopped by my office just to say hi and to tell me that they were gonna drop
their friends off. Kirsten was driving.
That's when the phone rang and it was him on the phone and he was screaming
it's Kiersten it's Kirsten. Realizing that it's not just one of your children
but two whom you had just seen less than an hour ago and not really knowing at
that moment you know what was going on, how bad was it? I asked them to
please take them both to the same place and to take them to Children's.
The situation was unique. They had not one, but two siblings who were involved
in this terrible model vehicle accident and both of them had
life-threatening injuries.
I think of the worst day of anybody's life and then multiply that by two and that's
what they were dealing with.
November 11th came around. That's the anniversary of our son Ryan's
death.
He died 11/11 2003 in a car accident when he was 19. November 11th we're still
sitting in the hospital. I'm still looking at my kids, both of them in comas,
thinking we can't do this again.
But I could watch everybody there and they were doing everything they could
and the best they could.
And Thanksgiving morning she's laying in bed with her eyes open and truly sitting
there next to her and she says I have to go to bathroom. Of course the celebration
went on the whole time she still has to go to the bathroom. We wanted to begin waking
them up and getting them oriented again and so that was right around
Thanksgiving.
He had more difficulty remembering or talking so I would use music to help him
with his cognition but also his memory recall. It was fun seeing him
progress so quickly through high level skills to the point where he was jumping
rope, he progressed very nicely. Kirsten you just couldn't push her hard
enough. Working with Christy, our music therapist,
on some marching activities
the chemistry between the two you can tell how much they really love each
other as siblings and they do really honestly genuinely care about each other.
They both skipped grades. Kiersten is on track to be valedictorian. She has
scholarships already so it's our fervent hope that all those dreams are realized.
We expect great things for both of those children. They're not alone. They're not
by themselves. They have this whole team working with them helping them each step
of the way. They're gonna live. We still have our kids. I didn't have to bury
another child. Everybody up there from the first responders on the scene to
every doctor and every person at that hospital, I didn't have to, I brought my
kids home. I brought them home. When Kirsten and Elias had their accident in
October they were almost positive that Kirsten was not going to survive. I
really want to extend a thank you to the Highway Patrol into the dead county
sheriff's office and to the dead County Fire Department and cell Memorial
District Hospital for putting into motion the ability for Children's
Hospital to save our kids, and that's what they did.
It's definitely a surreal experience like to come back where there was so
much struggle, so much heartache, you know along with so many successes and
everything. It just takes your breath away like stepping into it and being
like so much happened here and everything and so many people I don't
remember the names good because of the amnesia, but I know the faces because
I've seen them so much and everything. So it's nice to see everyone like when we
visited the PICU while we were still in the hospital. It's nice to see the
people who saved your life.