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Day One - The Event that Changed my Life

This is my story.

When I was 7 months old I arrived at the hospital in an ambulance at around noon, in mid December. I was in the emergency room with a flurry of activity; doctors and nurses performing countless tests to determine what was wrong with me. My skin had turned blue, and my eyes were swollen shut. After a couple hours my parents finally got to come in to the room to see me for the first time since 6:00 that morning. One of the head doctors showed my parents my CT scan which showed massive bleeding in my brain. They were informed that I had retinal hemorrhaging along with brain hemorrhaging, and that the next 24 hours would be very critical. For the next several hours, I would undergo many more tests, and a surgery to place a pressure monitor inside my brain. I was on a ventilator and placed into a medically induced coma to help prevent further damage to my brain. Because I was in the PICU, I had a team of doctors, and a 24 hour nurse at the end of my bed. In the morning one of the neurosurgeons in the hospital informed my parents that my diagnosis was a severe traumatic brain injury (T.B.I.). Weeks later when I was finally released from the hospital, I was blind (due to the eye hemorrhaging, caused from my brain smashing into the back of my eyes), and paralyzed on the left side of my body (When my brain smashed back and forth inside my skull, it caused massive bleeding which built pressure inside my brain. The pressure and the trauma from the rapid deceleration against my skull caused extensive damage to my brain.). I had lost everything that I had learned up until that day that I was admitted to the hospital. I had to relearn everything such as how to eat, how to drink from a bottle, how to hold my head up. I had even lost the simplest tasks like sucking on pacifier. I was basically a newborn again, just this time with very severe disabilities. The doctors even told my parents “Do not expect him to improve, he may never get any better.” My parents and I refused to give up on me. We decided to not believe that “it is, what it is.” So we began searching for the top specialists in our state. Since then I have been in physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, I have my own teacher, and I go to countless doctor’s appointments. I go to several hospitals across the state to see various doctors. I've seen multiple neurologists, and neurosurgeons along with multiple vision specialists. My pediatrician whom I've known since the day I was born still smiles every time I enter his office to show him the new things that I am doing. I've met and been seen by more doctors and nurses than I could count, and every one of them, along with all of my wonderful therapists, has done their part in helping me get better. When I left the hospital that first time the doctors told my parents not to expect me to get much better, however with the guidance of my parents, all my therapists, and doctors I continue to amaze everyone. My vision has mostly returned, even though I have to wear a patch and glasses now. I also have been working really hard to retrain myself how to use my left side.

Due to the extent of my injury my neurologist has told my parents and me that I will never be able to play sports or do anything other activity where I might fall down or take a hit to the head. I can’t partake in any activities which might include any rapid acceleration or deceleration to my brain. So this means no bounce houses, trampolines or roller coasters for me as I get older. Playing on a playground is a nightmare right now for my parents for fear that another child could crash into me. Any of these things could land me back in the hospital or worse. We won't know for many years how badly my cognitive ability was affected, or how much I will be able to recover, but neither my parents, nor myself will ever stop fighting to give me the best chance.

It is a shame, but due to lack of physical evidence the person who did this to me may never be brought to justice or prosecuted. Many children who receive an injury like mine are too young to be able to point a finger at the person who injured them. So without a confession, often times no one is ever found guilty, or prosecuted. Then the family of the child is left to bear the burden of one careless, heartless individual who was trusted with the care of such a precious innocent baby. Anyone and everyone who reads this, please like/share this page, and do everything in your power to protect, and prevent this type of injury from ever happening to another child.

First Beginnings

Our family has been in its own personal nightmare since December 2011. On a fateful day in December we got a phone call that Liam had stopped breathing and EMS was on its way. This is when our nightmare began. I dropped everything and jumped in my truck to make the 30 minute ride to Hurley Hospital in a mere 12 minutes. On the way I called my husband. He had to drive all the way from Wixom to Flint. At first we had no idea what caused Liam to stop breathing. The ER doctor initially led us to believe that maybe our son had something blocking his air way, they were going to conduct a chest x-ray. We were finally able to go into the emergency room to see Liam. I couldn’t tell you how long we had to wait. For us it seemed like an eternity waiting to see him and to make sure he was OK. When we saw him, his eyes were swollen shut, he had been put on a ventilator, was hooked up to monitors and had several PIC lines. They were in the process of sedating him. At that point one of the doctors led us over to a CT scan. He explained that Liam had suffered a traumatic brain injury.

As soon as they had him stable enough Liam was moved from the ER to the pediatric ICU. They had to keep him in an induced coma by using several sedatives, a paralytic and pain killers. They needed to keep him as quiet as possible to minimize his brain pressure. A bolt called an Intracranial Pressure Monitor (ICP) was placed in his head to monitor the internal pressures of his brain. For days Liam had a 24 hour a day nurse that didn’t move more than a few feet from his bedside. She and a team of doctors constantly adjusted his medication to keep him properly sedated and his intracranial pressure low. Eight days later when the intracranial pressure had lowered, the doctors removed Liam’s ICP monitor. This is the first time we got to hold him since he was admitted into the hospital. The following day they stopped all sedatives and took him off the ventilator and put him on an assisted breathing device called a CPAP. The CPAP was removed later that day when he had a bad reaction to it. Fourteen days later they had removed all of Liam’s PIC lines. The following day Liam took it upon himself to pull out his NG tube (feeding tube). After nineteen days in the hospital Liam got to go home. The doctors decided that the danger of germs and infection was too great. Once home we have been attending doctor appointments nearly daily. We have to see our pediatrician, the neurologist, ophthalmologist, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and speech therapist. 

It has been two weeks now. Liam has made great progress, but he is far from the boy he was before this happened. Before this all happened Liam was starting to crawl. He was an expert roller. He could sit up unsupported for 10 minutes or so at a time. The day we brought him home from the hospital Liam was very limp like a rag doll, he was unable to hold up his own head. He had limited mobility of his left arm and hand. He could move his right arm and hand but not in a coordinated manner. Since he has been home, he has learned how to use a pacifier and a bottle again. He neck is getting stronger every day and he is able to hold his head up with minimal support. He is now using his right hand to grab things and put them in his mouth. He grabs his foot and chews on it. He still has some weakness in his left arm and hand. He moves his left arm and hand, but he doesn’t use it to grab at things. We are doing physical therapy to strengthen his left arm/hand and his body. A few days ago he started to roll over from his back to his belly again. He is making consonant sounds and blowing raspberries again. We are unsure of his eyesight. He doesn’t seem to track objects very well. We took him to an eye specialist at U of M. The doctor gave us the good news that his retinas were still attached, the hemorrhages in the eyes were resolving nicely and that the optic nerves were still intact. So from an eye stand point Liam should be able to see. It is now up to the brain to heal itself and process the eyesight information. Liam is also on an anti-seizure medication which can cause bleary vision. We are hoping that once he is weaned off this medication that his eyesight will improve. Tonight I gave him his last dose of the medication. The medication has a long half life in the body. So we are hoping that after a week we will see some positive changes from the removal of the medication. He has been improving daily in the fussiness department. The first few weeks he cried almost constantly when he was awake. Part of this was due to detoxification from the medications and part of it from the injury. We had to hold him nearly 24 hours a day to keep him somewhat calm. In the past few days we have been able to set him down in a bouncy seat or on a blanket and he will play by himself.

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Liam’s First Month Home

When you came home you were on a preventative medicine for seizures due to your injury. The medicine tasted terrible and had bad side effects. We tried to make it more palatable by mixing it with sugar and breast milk. But that didn’t seem to help. It made you nauseous, irritable, gassy and unable to sleep. You had already lost quite a bit of weight in the hospital and now you are vomiting. At first you are only sleeping a few hours a day. And most of that sleep only occurs if we hold you. Your first month home we pretty much held you most of the time. If we set you down by yourself you cry. Part of it I am sure is due to the neurological damage, some might be due to you not being able to see and you are seeking comfort. Towards the end of the month that we can set you in a baby seat for a few minutes at a time without you fussing. After a week your neurologist started to wean you off of your medicine. As you are given less and less of the medicine you start to feel better. The vomiting stopped and you are sleeping a bit better. We started physical therapy (PT), occupational therapy (OT), weekly visits to the pediatrician and often visits to the neurologist this month. We also started frequent eye specialist visits. The eye specialist told us that your optic nerves and retinas were in good shape, but that you still have a hemorrhage behind your right eye which had not resolved yet. So only time would tell whether you will ever be able to see or not. One month after your injury you start to roll again from your back to your belly. It is hard for you as you are still experiencing the left hemiparesis. Big accomplishments this month were: you kind-of smiled, crinkled your brow when I tickled your foot, you have rolled a few times from back to belly, you are moving your left arm a bit, you learned to use a binky again, you seemed to be looking at the ceiling fan…maybe you are starting to see and at the end of the month you start to track things with your eyes at times (we are crossing our finger hoping that you are going to be able to see again). Fortunately you are nursing because we are really having a hard time teaching you how to use a bottle again. We only got you to use it once this month.

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Liam’s Second Month Home

2nd Month Week 1
You finally opened your Christmas presents at the prompting of your big brother. Well actually he mostly opened them and you got to play with them. We are working hard in PT to learn protective fall reflexes. These are the reflexes that come naturally where a baby will draw its legs up and tuck its head into its chest in response to being tipped backwards. These are important; they protect babies from hitting their heads if they should fall when learning to crawl/walk/etc. You have forgotten these basic reflexes. You are starting to track things with your eyes, although you don’t track upwards or to the left very well. You also seemed to recognize me (your mom) once while I was in the kitchen and you were in the dining room. As we catch you trying to track things and recognize things…at least we think you are, it makes us excited. We are hoping that you are getting your vision back. But at this point we really aren’t sure. We see these things and we choose to believe that someday you might see again. At the beginning of the week you started to roll from your belly to your back. By the end of the week you were doing it more regularly and you were starting to prop yourself up on your arms while on your belly.

2nd Month Week2
You still aren’t sleeping well. We think you are having bad dreams. Many nights we hold you while you sleep, sometimes we bring you into our bed to sleep. You need to work on independent play. You like us to always be close to you at all times. You actually used a sippy cup once this week to take a sip of water. At this point you still aren’t able to use bottles or any type of cup. Fortunately you are still breast feeding. You are now wearing a glove which helps keep your thumb on your left hand out of your fisted hand. You are starting to babble “ba ba ba” like you used to. You are beginning to use your left hand in play. At the end of the week while you were in the tub you grabbed your left foot with your right hand 3x crossing over. (When a person has a TBI, exercises which involve crossing over the midline of the body using a limb from one side and interacting with the other side is very good. It helps with reconnecting the neural pathways in the brain).

2nd Month Week3
We are still taking daily weights since you lost so much weight in the hospital. We want to make sure you are gaining. You are rolling now. You are grabbing your feet with you left hand. By the end of the week you don’t require as much “rescuing” when rolling. In other words up until this point when you are rolling you would pin your left arm underneath yourself and start crying. You left arm would just hang by your side and get in your way. You lacked the strength and ability to move this arm out from underneath you. We started using an exercise ball and bolster to help with strengthening exercises. This was a terrible sleep week. You were on the wake every 1.5 hour plan.

2nd Month Week4
You are a rolling machine now. You intentionally pushed a button on one of your toys to turn it on. You like to hold your left hand with your right hand. You started to chewing (gumming) your food. We are slowing introducing soft foods, much of it is pureed baby food, but we are also trying things like cheese, etc. We have to worry about swallow reflex for many babies with TBIs have trouble with basic motor skills such as swallowing. You have some sensitivity while eating but you are doing pretty well. You keep us busy we are seeing a PT, OT, special needs teacher, pediatrician, neurologist and eye specialist.