You guessed it. October started with football, and ended with football. We had lovely fall weather, so it was especially nice going to games.
Alex's soccer season continued throughout October, too. We enjoyed the opportunity to see him so often. It took the sting of him leaving home and made it so much easier.
On October 16, our family was enjoying a typical Sunday
afternoon. We had finished watching Colton play his
final tackle football game of the season. Shannon headed to church for a meeting prior to the evening service
at 6:30. Jackson, Chase, Colton and I drove a couple
miles from home to celebrate Colton's season with an impromptu football pizza party
with some of the other players. Alex was home visiting from college, and stayed with the younger
kids.
We left the pizza party at 6:00,
drove the two miles home, and pulled into the driveway. The other children were outside playing, and
were ready to leave for church. I got
out of my parents van, which I had been driving. Alex came out of the house and got into the
van because he was going to drive it back to college. He had
decided to come home with us following his soccer game the previous day in Dubuque. We were planning to drive to Ankeny
to see his soccer game on Monday, so my parents said he could drive their van
back to school, and they would drive it home after his game, saving us the trip
there and back after church Sunday evening.
Hudson
asked if he could ride to church with Alex.
I said sure and buckled him into the rear passenger seat of the
minivan. They headed off to church.
Without even going into the house, the other seven children
and I loaded up in our van. Katie ran back into the house and grabbed a sippy cup for Macklin. We headed out the drive and
made the six mile trip north to church.
As we pulled into the church parking lot and unloaded from the van, I
heard the sirens from the hospital across the street. Often times I will say a prayer for those in
need as I hear the siren. On this
particular day, I did not. It just
didn't even occur to me.
We were a few minutes early (very uncommon!), so I stood in
the fellowship hall visiting with some of the other teens. My cell phone rang, and the screen said it
was Alex. That was when I
realized that he and Hudson should have beaten us to church because they left
before we did. He immediately told me he
had been in an accident and had crashed the van. I asked him where he was, and he said he was
south of town and had lost control on the gravel and gone into the ditch. I grabbed Jackson
and told Alex we would be right
there. It wasn't until then that I
remembered Hudson was with
him. When I asked how they were, Alex said
he was fine, but Hudson had a cut
on his face.
As Jackson and I left the church, I spoke with a man in the
parking lot and asked him to find Shannon and have him meet us at
the accident site. Then I called Alex
back and told him we were on our way. He
said the ambulance was there already, so we should just meet them at the
hospital. We went directly to the
hospital, and had to wait about 15-20 minutes for them to arrive. We were able to contact Shannon,
and he met us at the ER.
I was not prepared for what I saw when the ambulance
arrived. Hudson
was wheeled in first. His face was
bloody and swollen. He was in a cervical
collar. He was strapped down onto the
gurney. There were many EMTs, doctors
and nurses surrounding him, all talking at once. They would not let us see him
immediately. I was SO close to breaking
through those doors!
Alex was able to walk in on his own. They conducted a physical exam on him, and he
was cleared fairly quickly, with only a superficial scratch on his arm from the
air bag. Hudson
was on the opposite side of the curtain from Alex, so we could hear part of
what they were saying. We were only
expecting Hudson to need some
stitches. The more we heard, the more
scared we became. He was in and out of
consciousness. He had one large pupil,
one small, and they were not responsive to light. His left eye was swollen shut and he had multiple
lacerations on his face. It was
determined that he needed to be intubated since he was losing consciousness and
he had swelling in his neck. It took them 6 attempts and 40 minutes to intubate him. He was
X-rayed to make sure the tube was in the correct place.
We were informed that they had called the University of Iowa
Hospitals and were going to transfer Hudson
via life flight helicopter. We would
need to drive ourselves there. At this
point I called across the street and asked our pastor to spread the word and
begin praying for our boys. Although
Alex was physically okay, he was quite emotional about the accident and felt
responsible.
I had called my parents and they drove over to deal with the
van and be with us. The sheriff deputy
met my dad at the scene of the accident.
Alex had lost control on the gravel and entered the ditch. It was quite steep at that particular
spot. The van then collided with a concrete
culvert, skipped over it, and landed in a creek. The driver's airbag deployed, saving Alex
from serious injury. Hudson
was thrown forward, colliding with the hard plastic hand hold on the back of
the front passenger seat, typical in many minivans. Alex's door wouldn't open, so he had to climb
against gravity through the side van door, and jump down about four feet into
the creek. He thought he saw smoke in
the van, so he unbuckled Hudson and
removed him from the van. As he climbed
up the ditch, a man in an SUV stopped to help him. He was on his way to church in the same town
we attend church, and he is an EMT. He
helped Alex call 911, since Alex's phone kept dropping the call as he
dialed. Another lady, also a former EMT,
came upon the accident from the opposite direction. They immediately immobilized Hudson
and applied traction to his neck. We
were told later that Alex did an incredible job staying calm, and comforting
his brother.
Back at the hospital, we were making arrangements for our other
children, who were still at church.
Fortunately, we had gassed up the car earlier that day. I found comfort in the details of
planning. It was such a surreal
experience. I remember our pastor praying
over Hudson with the EMTs, nurses
and doctors praying right along with us as they artificially breathed for Hudson. At one
point I looked at Shannon and told him I didn't think I
could do this. Things like this don't
happen to our family. Shannon
held me and told me we really didn't have a choice. We just had to deal with it and do the next
thing. This was similar to what I told
Alex as I held his face in my hands as he cried. I assured him God was in complete control of
the situation. Even though we were
scared and unsure of what was going to happen, God knew from the beginning of
time that we were going to be standing broken in that emergency room at that
particular time. He was watching over us
and would guide us through all that was yet to come.
Alex wanted to go to Iowa City
with us, so he prepared to contact his RA at school to tell him he wouldn't be
back that night. He wasn't able to
contact him, so Alex called his soccer coach, who attends church at our
previous church in Nevada where we lived and served for 9 years. They of course prayed for our boys, and word
spread throughout our Baptist association.
Alex's college, Faith Baptist
Bible College,
was notified and they began praying. Another
Faith student who attends church in Nevada immediately upon hearing of the
accident called her parents who are close friends of ours in Clear
Lake, and their congregation began
praying. Members of that church work at
the Iowa Regular Baptist Camp, and spread the word when they got home from
church. In an unbelievably short amount
of time, word of the boys' accident had spread across the state and beyond, and
God's people were appealing to Him to heal Hudson. You can imagine how the prayers multiplied
once our request was posted on Facebook.
As the helicopter arrived and we spoke with the medic, I
asked him to take good care of my baby.
He hugged me and assured me they would do their best. We had provided them with telephone numbers
to reach us 'just in case'. One of the
hardest things I've had to do was to see my little boy loaded onto that helicopter
and not be able to be there with him. As
we stood in the parking lot and watched the helicopter leave, I remembered that
when Hudson was a little baby I
prayed to God and 'gave' my baby to Him.
I trusted God, but I wasn't ready to lose my boy. Many of the hospital staff and EMT's were crying as we left the ER.
Alex ended up staying home.
My parents made sure the other children were settled in at our house,
then took Alex home with them to keep an eye on him. Shannon and I began the hour and a half drive
to Iowa City. My sister Kim is a nurse and works in the
clinics at the hospital, so she was able to be at the hospital when Hudson
arrived. Shannon and I spent the trip
praying fervently for our little guy. I
contacted family and friends asking them for prayer. We sang praises to God and appealed to Him for
mercy and healing on Hudson.
About half way there we received a call. I was almost afraid to answer the phone. It was the social worker from UIHC calling to
make sure it was okay to share medical information with my sister. Hudson
had arrived, and they were beginning testing and CT scans. She told us where to park and met us at the
doors, then escorted us to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Kim was with her, too. When we arrived in the PICU we were greeted
by a resident and given a preliminary progress report. The CT scan appeared to be normal, although
they were still waiting for the official report. There were no brain bleeds found. He had facial and orbital fractures. The tendon that attaches his left eyeball to
the bone had been severed. Many
different doctors and residents were attending to his needs. He was scheduled to be seen by neurosurgeons,
oculoplastics, ophthalmologists, radiologists, and a slew of other
providers. It was quite some time before
we were able to see him. They had him in
a drug-induced coma. He was quite
agitated with the tubes and restraints when conscious. Although the reports were positive, we were
warned that there could still be permanent damage, and we should plan to be at
the hospital for about a week.
The pastor and assistant pastor from our previous church
in Nevada drove two hours to be with us at the hospital, after spending the day
preaching. They stayed with us for
several hours until we knew Hudson
was stable, then drove back home in the wee hours of the morning. Their friendship and support meant the world
to us in a very scary time of our lives.
Throughout that first night, the doctors would bring Hudson
out of his coma to test his responsiveness.
Although scared and uncomfortable from being intubated and restrained,
each time Hudson was able to
respond to our voices and squeeze our hands and move his feet.
By morning they had ruled out brain damage and were
confident that his eye could be repaired.
He was put on the surgery schedule as an "add-on", so we
didn't have a specific time for surgery.
About 1:00pm they came to get
him to prepare him for surgery. He was
gone for about three hours. When he
returned, they had been able to remove his breathing tube and the repair of his
eye and lacerations had gone well. He
had just over 20 stitches, beginning across his left eyelid and continuing
along his left cheekbone in "Z" pattern. Within minutes he was talking to us, trying
to remember what had happened. He was
sad that he was missing Alex's soccer game.
We had told Alex he could play as long as he felt okay. He had been able to play about half of the
game before getting dizzy. When Alex
finished his game, he called to see how surgery went. The first thing Hudson
did when talking to Alex was to thank him for saving him. There wasn't a dry eye in the room.
Hudson was quite
charming the rest of the evening. He was
able to visit with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Kimmy, Uncle Jeff and his cousin
Mason, and pastor Nemmers and his wife.
On Tuesday morning Hudson
received a special honor. Our PICU nurse
was able to arrange for him to go up to the roof of the hospital and see the
helicopter he had flown in on. One of
the medics gave the special tour. We were able to see the little cot that he
was strapped to, and the seats for the medics and the pilot. We were allowed to take as many pictures as
we wanted, and they even gave him a stuffed panda bear as a gift.
The biggest surprise of all, though, was the news that we
were being discharged. Not from PICU to
the floor, but HOME. The doctors said
there was no reason for us to stay. Our
PICU nurse had no idea how to discharge a patient home. She had never done it before. Shannon had to go out
and buy clothes and a booster seat since Hudson
arrived with neither.
In less than 42 hours from the time of the accident, we had
been told that Hudson might not
make it, if he did live he'd likely have brain damage, and he'd possibly lose
his left eye. But because of our
merciful, all-powerful God, we were able to walk out of the hospital with
'only' facial fractures and sutures. We
firmly believe that Hudson was
healed because of the faithful prayers of our friends, family, and the
community members surrounding our rural home.
There's no medical way to explain it.
It was just God.
We had incredible opportunities to share our faith
throughout the ordeal, and give glory to God.
Our children have been shown clearly that God DOES answer prayers. My sister, who was saved as a child but has not
found time in the past twenty-five years to serve God, saw up close and
personally that God is active and present in our lives if we allow Him to
be. We were shown so much love and
support throughout the relatively short time following the accident by friends
and family, and even virtual strangers.
We are truly blessed.
Hudson has been given a clean bill of health from all of his doctors. His vision is perfect. He has quite a scar, but I find it a daily reminder of Who holds us in His hands.
Hudson has learned that God ABSOLUTELY answers prayers. He's got such amazing faith. A week after the initial surgery, Hudson and Macklin were tussling, and all of Hudson's stitches got ripped out. We loaded him up and headed back to Iowa City to have them repaired. On the way there, Hudson looked at Shannon and I and said, "Aren't you going to call everyone and have them pray for me?".
Lesson learned.
"The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD." Proverbs 16:33
