We are over-protective parents. Our kids wear helmets to ride their bikes, scooters and the 4-wheeler. I watch them out the bathroom window when they walk 2 lots down to their cousins house. I have moderate anxiety anytime they are off somewhere on their own...you know scary places like: scouts, music practice, a friends house, school (I can't even say sports practice, because I always go).
So as the laws of nature go, one of the only times Tiago was riding on something (an under-powered golf cart) without a helmet or a seat belt, he fell and smacked his head on the road!
June 11, 2017 now becomes the day we could have lost Tiago. It was a typical Sunday afternoon a bunch of cousins and aunts and uncles were all at Grandma Jan's for Sunday dinner. Typically during the summer the cousins will beg and plead until one of the adults takes them on the golf cart up to the park to burn off some energy. On this particular day, they convinced Josh. When the golf cart was first introduced by the grandparents, there were just a few young grandkids and they all fit safely, but apparently over the last few years we have blossomed and we haven't noticed that really the golf cart is far too crowded with the majority of the kids on there. Tiago was standing on the edge holding onto the roof handle and apparently someone lifted up his shirt, he quickly tried to put it back down and in doing so lost his grip with his other hand and fell from the golf cart. He fell hitting his side and then smacking the back right part of his head on the edge of the road. From what we can gather he was knocked out for a brief second and then immediately became very combative, by the time Josh got to him he was trying to get up and yelling in frustration. He was completely out of control, Josh grabbed him and held him on his lap as he drove the golf cart the short distance back to our house.
Meanwhile, I was back at G-ma Jan's with the other adults, Keyan came running in the house saying "we need help, we need help" typical crazy Sunday banter which usually means there's a wasp or snake somewhere outside. I tried to call him down, he told me Tiago was hurt (also typical Sunday banter) I said okay what do you need "band-aids, lots of band-aids" he responed...in my most annoyed voice I asked well, where is Dad? Keyan tells me he's at our house with Tiago. Suddenly, my heart dropped a little and I start quickly to our house expecting to see some nasty bloody mess, I even checked the cement as I was going in the front door to see how much blood I might be getting ready to encounter.
Once I got inside I saw Josh with his arms wrapped around Tiago in a bear hug and Tiago is yelling "ahhh, ahhh, ahhh" I ask Josh why are you holding him down, just let him go. Josh tells me that whenever he lets go of him he's slamming into the wall and falling all over the place. So Josh tries it and sure enough Tiago does just that. Although, he generally is not dramatic, I was pretty sure at this point he was just being over dramatic so I laid down the law and got really stern with Tiago and told him if he didn't stop right now and tell us what was hurting that we would have to take him to the Dr. (normally this would have done the trick) but he wasn't hearing or reacting to a word we said, Josh quickly told me what happened and I saw the huge bulge on the back of Tiago's head. All of the sudden I knew we had to get him help quick. Since we live in a rural area, it's faster typically to just drive to the hospital that to wait for an ambulance to arrive and then transport someone to the hospital so we jumped in the car, I drove and Josh sat in the back trying to keep Tiago under control, he was fighting and yelling and then suddenly he would just go dead silent. This was super freaky so Josh would stimulate him by talking to him or sometimes dripping water on his head, he would start yelling and wailing again. Of course super long drive to the Tooele Hospital ER.
Josh carried him in while I parked the car, they immediately got him in a bed and Josh told them what happened, he was thrashing all over the place, it took 4 adults to hold him down, one of us on each limb, so they could insert and IV to get him something to calm him down. Finally, they got it in, but he was trying to pull it out, he was pulling off the oxygen (thinking it was suffocating him) he was hallucinating that everything and everyone who was trying to help him was hurting him and he was fighting with all his might! Given that Tiago is such a mellow nice kid this was super scary, I was immediately thinking of stories I'd seen where people with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injuries) lose their personalities and end up different people. It was a tough scenario to consider! The Dr. didn't want to put him under because they try to avoid that with kids so he was giving him some medicine through the IV that is supposed to have a quick calming effect....they gave him one dose, then another, then another and it wasn't working. They needed to get an MRI to see if there was bleeding on his brain but apparently one has to hold completely still for the scan and that wasn't going to happen anytime soon.
At this point I decided prayer's were needed so I stepped out and text a few family members to please let everyone know to pray for him. Soon Josh went with him and the Dr's into the imaging room and through lots of patience and more of the medicine they were finally able to get the scan. Josh and another priesthood holder who was working at the hospital were able to give him a blessing and soon he started to calm down is small spurts, but when he would come back out he would freak out so they had to restrain him to the bed (all 4 limbs). It was super sad to witness, he was yelling in the nurses face and exhibiting all sorts of unusual mean behavior. This seemed to last FOREVER, maybe 30-45 minutes? The security guard felt so bad that he asked if he could get him a stuffed animal, he brought him back a little koala ( our kids are stuffed animal fanatics so that was really appreciated) The Dr. comes back with the image and says that he "thinks" he'll be fine, but that he wants to consult with Primary Children's because he'll need over night observation and Tooele isn't really equipped if something were to happen, as he goes and talks to them on the phone, simultaneously Josh and I decide that if Primary's is even being considered we want him to be transferred asap. When the Dr. comes back he said they are thinking of transferring him there and we said yes for sure we want to. A few minutes later we hear the amazing sound of Primary Children's life flight landing.
In comes the flight nurse and holy crap there was a new sheriff in town! This chick was awesome, she came in and took control of the situation, grilled that ER Dr for all sorts of info and asked him if he had given Tiago anything for pain. When they told her no she said well, he probably has a pretty bad headache! So she gave him some morphine and immediately his demeanor started to change. Within a few minutes he was starting to speak actual words instead of just yelling. She asked him where he was and he said he didn't know, (which was a step up from before when he claimed he was in Hawaii), she was able to reach him on a super personal level and discuss with him that she could let him out of the hand and leg restraints if he would not pull on his IV and oxygen. As this all started to happen I finally felt like he would be okay, I knew that if there was anyone that could help his situation that she had arrived and we were headed to the best place possible to care for him. (we are so blessed to live close to Primary Children's hospital). She determined that it would be fine to put him in the helicopter because he was much calmer now. They had told us that one of us would be able to go in the helicopter and I thought for sure Josh and I would have to do Rock, paper, scissors...but Josh said I should go and I was really happy about that. By this point I knew Tiago would be okay and I honestly was pretty excited to get to ride in a helicopter.
It was really cool to see how the whole life flight process works. Tiago was on a stretcher in the back, unrestrained now and actually looking out the window and answering a couple of questions from the nurse. (Later he claimed that we had been crashed into by an airplane and it was so weird that we were able to keep flying...remember he was on morphine!) I was in the co-pilot seat up front where I was told not to touch ANYTHING especially not the foot pedals. It happened to be a fairly windy day and the pilot warned me that when we went around the point of the mountain by saltair that it would get bumpy but not to worry it was just due to high wind. Not wanting to get nervous and grab something accidentally, I alternated between sitting on my hands and holding them closed on my lap! It had never crossed my mind before that in the direct path between Tooele and Primary Children's is the SLC Airport. As we came around the corner of the mountain, the pilot made contact with the airport and they immediately sent us north to Antelope island and then east to pass the airport on the north side. As we approached the airport I noticed several planes taking off to the south and realized how complex it makes things to have life flight coming and going randomly. I gained a whole new respect for the pilot. He was the ultimate multi-tasker, he was talking to the flight nurse, the airport, flying the helicopter with his feet and right hand and even his left hand when we hit the windy updraft of the mountain. Then somehow he managed to switch stations on his dial to get into contact with the hospital and back and forth with the airport...it was crazy!
When we arrived at the hospital it was AMAZING to see how they accept a patient in the trauma center. Security guards greeted us and escorted us to the room where there were at least 10-12 different Dr.'s, Nurses and specialists waiting in full gear around the table to receive and evaluate him. By this time Tiago was doing so much better, this ended up being a pretty mild case compared to what they see much of the time in there. They had a Dr that was explaining everything to me and a staff member finding out if I needed a drink or a place to sit or anything. It was so reassuring. After their initial evaluation (Tiago now comprehended that he was in a hospital) they determined that they needed to get a look at the MRI from the Tooele hospital to confirm whether or not their was a skull fracture. Overall, they were pretty content with his current state, he was calm and asking questions about what had happened and trying to make sense of it all (this is when the plane crashing into the helicopter story came out). About this time Josh arrived, having driven the car from Tooele with a bag of clothes SIL Tiffany had delivered to the Tooele hospital along with notes and cards from the cousins wishing Tiago well. After a long wait (over an hour) we received the news that a neurologist had looked over the MRI and concluded that their was a very small crack with just a tiny bleed, because his behavior was so good they felt like there wasn't anymore bleeding occurring, but they definitely wanted to observe him overnight and do some neurological testing the next day to ensure that he wouldn't have any long term effects.
At about 12:30am they admitted us into the ICU where poor Tiago was just exhausted, everyone kept asking him over and over how old he was, when is his b-day, what day is it, where do you go to school...all of the typical questions to find out his mental state. The room had a private bathroom which was great, the patient bed and a little couch/bed for a parent. The nurse said we were both welcome to stay there, but that no one could sleep on the floor. I evaluated the situation, looked at an oversized window seal and thought, I can manage in there. we took one of the bed/couch pads and folded it into the window and as long as I slept back to the window, it was just barely big enough for me to manage. Of course the nurse had to come in and out in and out to check on Tiago throughout the night...we could tell he was just exhausted and needed some rest. Just when it felt like we were able to rest a little all of the sudden about 6 Dr's come in the room and start asking us all sorts of questions. (They were doing their morning rotations...nothing like being greeted at the crack of dawn by a room full of Dr's after a long rough night) I didn't have contacts in or my glasses on so I'm squinting at them trying to figure out what in the heck they are talking about and they are asking what questions we have. It was pretty comical and annoying! Josh managed a few questions.
The whole morning was a battle between Tiago trying to sleep and a slew of specialists coming in to ask him a bunch of questions. They also were teaching us about concussion safety and healing. He progressively got quieter and less excited with his answers. I could tell he was totally over it. Finally, I had to lay down the law and ask the nurse if she could put a sign on the door that he just needed to rest and to come back later. I settled in for a little nap myself as Josh had gone to get some food and figure out how the billing was going to work. No more than 10 minutes later in comes the nurse saying that a speech specialist needed to do an evaluation and he was the last patient of the day so if she couldn't see him then for sure he would have to stay another night. He had just fallen asleep, but we could see that he wasn't going to get any good rest there and that was what he needed more than anything at this point. So the therapist comes in, wakes him up and says "okay, I'm going to ask you a few questions...this shouldn't take more than 30 minutes" Josh and I look at each other and I mouth " did she say 30 minutes or 3 minutes?" so over the next 30 minutes she basically does a college entrance memory exam on the poor kid. I was silently doing the drills along with him and on some of the memory parts, he did better than me! He was so patient and went along. At the end she said "he did pretty well, but there was a delay with some of his responses so I want him to get re-tested in a month." Josh and I looked at each other rolled our eyes and said " yeah sure okay".
So at this point we can tell he's going to be okay, he is doing awesome, the only problem is he doesn't have an appetite and with a TBI they want to be sure the patient can eat and not puke. All morning we had been trying to encourage him to order something off of the AMAZING menu, but nothing interested him. After the college exam (lol) he decided he wanted to try playing some x-box, which they have in every room! Josh went and got a game for him and I decided I would go for a walk and get some food, I kind of took my time and when I finally made my way back I see this nurse all decked out in protective clothing outside his room in the hall. My first thought was, please don't let that be for my kid. I walk in the room and they tell me that he had just thrown up all over the bed so they were just putting on his fresh sheets. (turns out the gaming over stimulated his brain making him sick). Fast forward 3-4 hours and he's not too excited about trying to eat. I know I can't sleep another night in the window seal so we ask Tiago if it's okay if I go and Josh stays. We were hoping he would get released later that day, but it was looking less likely. I get home and get Keyan and Sutton and take care of some obligations I had and at about 9, Tiago calls and tells me he gets to come home, they had gone upstairs to the Ronald McDonald house and played on the piano and he was offered a doughnut and apparently that was the trigger for his appetite. From there he ordered about 3 meals worth of food and gobbled it all down. They did one final blood test to ensure there wasn't any type of active bleeding and he got released. Unfortunately, there was a big crash on the Tooele exit so they sat on the freeway for another hour or so and didn't get home until about midnight!
Final situation: Mild concussion with complications (due to the crack) he ended up having a follow up appointment with a concussion specialist about a month later where he checked out fine. He had to take it easy for the majority of the summer (3 mos) so that the crack would fully heal before he risked another hit.
In the end we are so grateful for the protection he was given and the answered prayers, we are so grateful for this sweet healthy boy in our family!
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