My Son's Recovery

Elijah

On Sept 22, 2002, my son Elijah and I were involved in a car accident. He was three weeks old at the time. We were t-boned at 55 miles an hour. My son was rushed to Everett Colby Campus, airlifted to Harborview and then transferred to Children’s. I believe we spent a total of 6-1/2 weeks at Children’s.

The first three weeks he was in the PICU. He had fantastic, wonderful nurses who held my hand and cried with me and prayed with me and just were fantastic and wonderful and great. I was blessed to be able to stay with my son, maybe not at his bedside, but be able to stay in a small room nearby.

His injuries were six broken ribs, a lacerated spleen, and a lacerated liver, both lungs punctured and collapsed. He had a bruised heart, broken clavicle, a broken humerus. He had blood and liquid in his brain. He was not doing very well in the beginning, but that changed thanks to the constant care by the nursing staff and doctors. They were so wonderful explaining to me everything that was happening: why they were taking out tubes and putting them back in and helping him and having him breathe on his own.

We moved into Recovery. We were there for a week. And again with great nurses and I was able to sleep at his bedside. We were discharged after, I believe, 6 to 7 weeks.

Today I have a happy, healthy, brilliant, almost 4 year old.

There are no lasting effects. He is growing astronomically fast! He is so big, and he is so smart. He has beaten all of his milestones.

He is great, and I thoroughly believe that my child is alive because Children’s hospital was there.

Thank you.