Lucky? Blessed? Both!

Yesterday afternoon, my 16 year old nephew and his friends were being stupid typical teenagers. They were at the skate park sitting on the back of a slowly moving car driven by another friend. One kid jumped off but my nephew did not. The driver, thinking both kids jumped off, sped up. My nephew flew off the back of the car, landing on the asphalt. He hit the back of his head. Fell forward and hit the front of his head, then rolled several times. At least this is how the story has been told to me.

Codie blacked out, came to, and then blacked out again. Lucky for him there was an off duty EMT at the park who was able to make sure he or his friends did not do anything to cause him more damage. He was transported to the local hospital where they ran tests and concluded that he had several bleeds and hematomas. They felt he may need surgery and he was transported to a regional hospital where he was again x-ray'd and underwent another CAT scan. During this time he was very agitated and violent; enough so, that they had to restrain him in order to do what was needed.

When I arrived at the hospital he was pretty heavily sedated but came to a few times. It was one of the hardest things for me to watch. He was trying to sit up, to take the oxygen tube out of his nose, and wanting to use the bathroom. He kept telling everyone to let him go, he had to go pee. The nurse told us that the nerve that makes you feel like you need to urinate was damaged which was why he had that feeling even though he had a catheter.

Codie fractured the occipital lobe and a vertebra in his upper neck. Last night he had some bleeding in the brain but not enough that the neurosurgeon thought he needed surgery. He is in the ICU but has been up today and talking and going to the bathroom on his own. He tries to keep his eyes closed; otherwise he gets sick to his stomach. They have been performing CAT scans throughout the day to look for changes. In fact, his second scan this morning is the one that revealed the fracture in his vertebrae.

Originally, the doctor’s thought he would be in the ICU for three or four days. They now think he will be out of ICU tomorrow and could even come home the day after.

My sister has been amazing. Last night when I, my mom, and other sister broke down while Codie was struggling to get up, she was calm. She gently pushed him back down and tried to explain why he needed to stay where he was. I don’t think he realized what was happening or even where he was.

This has been a reminder of what we went through with my niece. When she was two she fell on her head and had to be sedated and monitored at Primary Children’s Hospital for a week. She has had no lasting side effects.

Codie is very lucky. There are so many “IF’s” and “could have’s” that would have caused him to not be with us anymore. This is not the first time we have watched and prayed for Codie to be safe and healthy. When my sister was pregnant her water broke with about 7 or 8 weeks to go. They kept her in the hospital, trying to keep as much fluid inside for the baby. He was born 6 weeks early.

While he is not completely out of the woods and we don’t know what, if any, lasting effects there may be; he is so blessed that his injuries are not worse than they are. Someone is listening to our prayers and watching out for him.