dwhee87
GON Political Forum Scientific Studies Poster
I know I don't know hardly any of you, but I don't think the Big Guy cares where the prayers come from.
This week, my wife and I got the call that no parent ever wants to get. At 8:41pm, Thursday evening, the Forsyth County Sheriff's office called. My daughter had been in an accident. They didn't have many details, but told me she was being life-flighted to Grady Hospital in Atlanta. They told me we needed to head that way, and that if I would put my flashers on and tell them what type of vehicle I was driving, they would alert the jurisdictions along the way.
Any of you that are parents of teens can only imagine the thoughts that started racing through our minds as we grabbed whatever we could and ran out the door. God bless the drivers who got out of the way as I flashed my brights. May the one driver that intionally slowed down and momentarily tried to block me from passing find out and feels like crap about it.
When we got to Grady, I dropped Suzanne off at the ER entrance and I went to park the truck. The first place I came to was a metered spot on the street. I pulled in, then started to fumble in the center console for change, and quickly realized that wasn't important right now. I'm still looking for someone in the hospital that can tell me how to get the $25 fine waived.
When we got inside, my son and mother-in-law were already there (we'd called along the way, and they were 15 minutes closer than we were. We were ushered to a family waiting room, where we sat for nearly 2 hours with no news. Many friends began to show up that had heard about the accident. Several of her high school assistant principals arrived and offered their prayers.
Finally, we were allowed to go into the trauma area to see her. Fathers, you haven't had your heart ripped from your chest until you see your little girl on a gurney with a half dozen tubes and wired coming out of her. She was unconscious. She had head trauma, sub-dermal facial fractures, a broken collar bone, a broken rib, and they were concerned with some fluid in her abdomen. The on-call neurologist had been summoned to assess the head trauma. There laid my little girl, who only about 4 hours earlier had given me a smile and a hug and left to go have dinner with friends at the local McDonalds.
As several more people arrived, we began to piece together what happened. She was riding with a friend in his jeep. He was a fairly new driver, and he mis-judged a left hand turn across traffic, and was t-boned on the passenger side, where my baby sat, by an oncoming car. A passerby called 911, and upon the EMS' early assessment, they ordered a life-flight helicopter. She had to be extricated (cut) from the car, and was flown to Grady Memorial Hospital. The driver was uninjured. Thank God she was wearing her seatbelt.
Grady is the largest hospital in Georgia, and takes care of a large indigent population in the city of Atlanta. It has often been said that Grady is the best place in the world for gunshot victims. It is a Class 1 Trauma Center. Everyone we talked to said she was in the right place. The doctors, nurses and other staff have been very professional and caring. Thank you all.
Not being an overly religious family, we turned to prayer for strength, both for her and for us. I figured the more the better, so I posted a prayer request on my Face Book page. I have been humbled by the outpouring from friends, family and complete strangers. My heavy heart is lifted each time a read a post, email or text message. Some are just from a cell number I have no idea to whom it belongs. No matter, I'll take all of them right now.
I'm generally a pretty strong guy, the one that holds it together in a crisis. I've done a fair job on this one so far, but man, is it tough. Every time I think of the outpouring of prayer, I get overwhelmed and tear up. Thank you all. You can never know how much it means to me and my little girl.
At about 2am, the neurologist made it down. They took her off the paralytics and sedatives (they were intentionally trying to keep her from moving and stay calm) to try to wake her up enough to get a response from her. After about 20 minutes, she responded to a request to open her eyes (we'll it was a valiant effort, anyway), and did actually manage a “thumbs-up” on request. That seemed to satisfy the neurologist that she was going to be OK. He wanted a followup C scan in 24 hours to check on the small brain bleed that showed up on the first one when she was first assessed.
The fluid in the abdomen was clear. The collarbone and rib will mend, as will the facial fractures. The followup CT scan was a few hours ago. We haven't heard from the doc on the outcome, but tha fact she was brought back to the room instead of being taken off somewhere for a procedure is a positive thing.
We hope to hear in the morning that all is well. After all, that's her middle name – NOEL, and old English slang for Now All is Well.
For those of you reading this who are parents, may you be blessed by never having to go through it yourselves. It's hard to say as I sit next to her in her hospital bed at 1:30am, but remember that each time they walk out that door could be the last time you see them.
I truly feel she will fully recover. I'm no doctor, but she's got more than a few angels looking down on her. That are going to help pull her though.
Update; Sunday 2/20, 8:10pm. Second CT scan was clear. She's still on the ventillator, but has opened her eyes and appears to recognize everyone around her. Can't tell for sure until she's extubated, hopefully tomorrow.
Thanks in advance for your prayers.
David
This week, my wife and I got the call that no parent ever wants to get. At 8:41pm, Thursday evening, the Forsyth County Sheriff's office called. My daughter had been in an accident. They didn't have many details, but told me she was being life-flighted to Grady Hospital in Atlanta. They told me we needed to head that way, and that if I would put my flashers on and tell them what type of vehicle I was driving, they would alert the jurisdictions along the way.
Any of you that are parents of teens can only imagine the thoughts that started racing through our minds as we grabbed whatever we could and ran out the door. God bless the drivers who got out of the way as I flashed my brights. May the one driver that intionally slowed down and momentarily tried to block me from passing find out and feels like crap about it.
When we got to Grady, I dropped Suzanne off at the ER entrance and I went to park the truck. The first place I came to was a metered spot on the street. I pulled in, then started to fumble in the center console for change, and quickly realized that wasn't important right now. I'm still looking for someone in the hospital that can tell me how to get the $25 fine waived.
When we got inside, my son and mother-in-law were already there (we'd called along the way, and they were 15 minutes closer than we were. We were ushered to a family waiting room, where we sat for nearly 2 hours with no news. Many friends began to show up that had heard about the accident. Several of her high school assistant principals arrived and offered their prayers.
Finally, we were allowed to go into the trauma area to see her. Fathers, you haven't had your heart ripped from your chest until you see your little girl on a gurney with a half dozen tubes and wired coming out of her. She was unconscious. She had head trauma, sub-dermal facial fractures, a broken collar bone, a broken rib, and they were concerned with some fluid in her abdomen. The on-call neurologist had been summoned to assess the head trauma. There laid my little girl, who only about 4 hours earlier had given me a smile and a hug and left to go have dinner with friends at the local McDonalds.
As several more people arrived, we began to piece together what happened. She was riding with a friend in his jeep. He was a fairly new driver, and he mis-judged a left hand turn across traffic, and was t-boned on the passenger side, where my baby sat, by an oncoming car. A passerby called 911, and upon the EMS' early assessment, they ordered a life-flight helicopter. She had to be extricated (cut) from the car, and was flown to Grady Memorial Hospital. The driver was uninjured. Thank God she was wearing her seatbelt.
Grady is the largest hospital in Georgia, and takes care of a large indigent population in the city of Atlanta. It has often been said that Grady is the best place in the world for gunshot victims. It is a Class 1 Trauma Center. Everyone we talked to said she was in the right place. The doctors, nurses and other staff have been very professional and caring. Thank you all.
Not being an overly religious family, we turned to prayer for strength, both for her and for us. I figured the more the better, so I posted a prayer request on my Face Book page. I have been humbled by the outpouring from friends, family and complete strangers. My heavy heart is lifted each time a read a post, email or text message. Some are just from a cell number I have no idea to whom it belongs. No matter, I'll take all of them right now.
I'm generally a pretty strong guy, the one that holds it together in a crisis. I've done a fair job on this one so far, but man, is it tough. Every time I think of the outpouring of prayer, I get overwhelmed and tear up. Thank you all. You can never know how much it means to me and my little girl.
At about 2am, the neurologist made it down. They took her off the paralytics and sedatives (they were intentionally trying to keep her from moving and stay calm) to try to wake her up enough to get a response from her. After about 20 minutes, she responded to a request to open her eyes (we'll it was a valiant effort, anyway), and did actually manage a “thumbs-up” on request. That seemed to satisfy the neurologist that she was going to be OK. He wanted a followup C scan in 24 hours to check on the small brain bleed that showed up on the first one when she was first assessed.
The fluid in the abdomen was clear. The collarbone and rib will mend, as will the facial fractures. The followup CT scan was a few hours ago. We haven't heard from the doc on the outcome, but tha fact she was brought back to the room instead of being taken off somewhere for a procedure is a positive thing.
We hope to hear in the morning that all is well. After all, that's her middle name – NOEL, and old English slang for Now All is Well.
For those of you reading this who are parents, may you be blessed by never having to go through it yourselves. It's hard to say as I sit next to her in her hospital bed at 1:30am, but remember that each time they walk out that door could be the last time you see them.
I truly feel she will fully recover. I'm no doctor, but she's got more than a few angels looking down on her. That are going to help pull her though.
Update; Sunday 2/20, 8:10pm. Second CT scan was clear. She's still on the ventillator, but has opened her eyes and appears to recognize everyone around her. Can't tell for sure until she's extubated, hopefully tomorrow.
Thanks in advance for your prayers.
David
