Spring Break - No Helmet - Bicycle Accident
On April 11, 2017, my 9 year old son, Blake, was out riding his bike enjoying the second day of his Spring Break. I had been our cutting the grass and was inside cooling off and grabbing lunch. In our neighborhood, there are tons of kids and always parents in and out. We watch out for each other’s children and do our best to create a neighborhood community that is safe for our kids. At about 1:30PM, I hear banging on our front door. At first, I thought it was the kid’s messing around, but that’s not unusual around here. Then it happened again, but harder and faster, so I jumped up and opened the door. I never imagined I would hear my neighbor’s next words: “Blake got hit by a car.” My Mom lives with us so I yelled to my Mom to call 911 and took off running. I ran as fast as I could, but it just seemed like the faster I ran, the further away he got. I thought I would never make it to Blake, who was only a football field or so from our house. Upon arrival, Blake was laying on his stomach not making any noise. I started checking him over to see if I saw any signs of ANYTHING…anything that would tell me SOMETHING about his condition. I got him talking to me while I was looking him over, but being sure to not move him. I saw he had a wound on his head, but it was goose egging out vs in so I knew (thought) that was good news. I asked what happened and who hit him and the guy who hit him was laying in the ditch beside Blake crying, because in his mind, he had killed him. The driver told me that Blake few out of a yard and that he swerved as soon as he saw him, but still hit him. This road is known for speeding, but thankfully this gentleman was only going 21 mph. This was later proven as he was driving a company truck with a gps tracking system on it. I found out later he wasn’t hit by a car, but by a Toyota Tacoma. A nurse stopped as well and started checking vital signs until the ambulance arrived. We were taken to a local hospital where they immediately did a CT scan of his head and countless x-rays of the rest of his body. It was so surreal standing in the corner watching as they cut my son’s clothes off and rushed around him. It was like watching a TV show. I just couldn’t believe what was happening. Once the rush was over and he was considered stable and safe, my son’s Youth Pastor, Jon, and our pastor, John, came in. They prayed over Blake as waited for results and what would happen next. We couldn’t believe it, but our son was discharged a few hours later with superficial wounds, a broken toe and 8 stitches in his foot. His Dad and I grabbed him chicken nuggets on the way home. His Dad dropped Blake and I off at my house. That night Blake started throwing up and was having these waves of headaches. We knew he would be suffering from a severe concussion and after all, he had been through a lot that day, so I saw, lets see how the night goes. The next day, Wednesday, he continued to throw up so I took him back to the hospital. The same doctor who saw him the day before saw him again. They gave him nausea meds and sent us home. The waves of headaches were getting worse. By Thursday (day 3), the waves of headaches were so bad, I could no longer control them. So back to the hospital. This time we had a different doctor who insisted Blake looked fine, seemed fine and all results from his tests on day 1 were fine. They gave him a cocktail of meds, let him sleep for a while then discharged us, which by this point, I was fighting. Blake’s Dad, Step-mom and Step-dad did their best to convince me that the doctors were saying he was okay and that he was fine to go home. I just knew everyone was wrong. We asked for an MRI and they laughed in our face and said we don’t do those from the ER, you’ll have to schedule that with your primary. No matter how hard I fault, they discharged us. At that point, I was literally praying for something to happen to get this hospital’s attention. As Blake was rolled out of the hospital, he started having seizures. We quickly went back inside where we were told he wasn’t having seizures, because he was conscious and wasn’t wetting himself. I very firmly said, call whoever you need to, but we aren’t leaving. Finally they admitted us. Under very little observation and not hooked up to a single machine, he stayed in the peds unit at that hospital. We demanded an MRI for the next day. Blake received an MRI on Friday (day 4). They put him completely under so they could check his head, neck and back. A couple hours later, the doctor came in and said our son had a skull fracture and an epidural hematoma. Talk about being kicked in the stomach… She told us due to the severity of his head injury, we would be transported to VCU, which is a Trauma 1 Peds hospital and would be admitted into the ICU. She then told us that they would likely just observe him, because it wasn’t that bad of a bleed, but may put a shunt in to drain the blood. Fast forward a couple of hours, we have now been transported to VCU and Blake has received another CT Scan. Within two hours of our arrival, Blake’s situation went from “not that bad” to “if we don’t do an emergency crainotomy tonight, he will die.” Like any Mother, I asked the doctor,“you guys are going to do this surgery and he’s going to be okay right?” The doctor dropped his head and said “I don’t know, we just need him to get through surgery first.” Blake went into surgery at 10PM Friday evening. We were surrounded by friends, family and Pastors. We prayed diligently over Blake, his surgical team and for the rest of us to have peace. He got out of surgery just before midnight and did great! Upon removing the broken pieces of skull, they found a lot of dry blood, which means he had been bleeding since the accident on Tuesday. They put his skull back together with plates and screws. Thankfully, he did not need a blood transfusion and had no dura or brain damage. By Sunday, Blake was ready to run circles around that hospital and we were discharged on Monday. After a 3 months recovery process, Blake was back on himself. Today, almost a year later, he is completely normal as far as we can tell. No more seizures, no more pain, nothing. We leaned heavily on our faith. Many people say God’s not real, but for us, He is. We were told our son could have died any one of those nights due to the extent of his injuries. We also found out later that the skull fracture was present on the very first CT scan done at the first hospital and it was missed by the Radiologist. He never should have been sent home so quickly to begin with especially after returning not once, but twice after the initial visit. We owe VCU everything for saving our son. The first hospital completed a full investigation on every doctor, nurse or aid who touched Blake throughout his visits there. That hospital took responsibility for their actions and although they still received insurance money, they waived all of our out of pocket fees. We learned so much about our experience. - HELMETS are a MUST when biking riding or participating in any other wheel based activity. The world moves at such a faster pace these days. A helmet would have made all the difference in our son’s case. - TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR HEALTH CARE! Doctors are humans and they make mistakes, but it’s your job to protect yourself and your loved ones. If something doesn’t seem right, ask…demand…MAKE SURE you’re getting the care you should be. - Above all else…TRUST GOD! He has a plan and sometimes we may not understand it, but we have to trust it. Our Son is alive today and without any lasting issues. We are so thankful for that and we know we owe it all to God.
