Rex's Traumatic Brain Injury

We had a most terrifying ordeal with Rex. Tilly's friend was trying to put him in his little push car, but wearing rollerblades, she lost her balance and they both came crashing down on his head. The back of his head instantly had a bump and was scratched. He was hysterical, but calmed down in a few minutes. I took him to the backyard, he even swung for a few minutes. Then, about an hour later, he became inconsolable. He just cried and cried and nothing I did helped. Then, the throwing up began. I would rinse him off in the tub after each time he threw up everywhere. After the 4th time, he was not able to sit up in the tub on his own, fading in and out of consciousness. I called Aaron terrified, and he said we needed to go to the ER and not wait for the after hours appointment I made. We drove to the ER with Rex in my arms, trying to keep him awake. He was so lethargic. 

We arrived at the ER and there was no urgency for him to be seen. After 20 minutes, we finally got to a room. They wanted to do a CT scan to see if he had bleeding on his brain. Rex threw up again just before the scan.  Aaron was with him the whole time in scan (me being 7.5 months pregnant avoiding the radiation). 15 minutes later, the doctor came in and said he was the 1 in 10,000 that has bleeding on his brain after a head injury.  

All of a sudden, everything seemed to move at warped speed. They needed to life flight him asap to Primary Children's Hospital in SLC to most likely have surgery to stop the bleeding. Nate came to administer Rex a blessing with Aaron, and the medical team got him all ready to go. Within about 20 minutes, Rex and I were on the helicopter bound for Salt Lake City. Rex calmed down once we were in the air. We flew right next to the Timpanogos Temple and over Draper mountains. It was pretty cool, but I was so terrified about what was to come next when we touched down.

We arrived at Primary Children's Hospital in under 15 minutes. We were moved quickly to a trauma room in the ER and greeted by almost 20 people, checking him, talking about him, assessing the situation. They did another CT scan to see if the bleeding spread. Thankfully, it hadn't! The verdict: an epidural hematoma 2 cm by 4cm and a skull fracture. They took him up to the Pediatric ICU. They told me they were not going to perform surgery just yet, and that they were going to watch him and wake him every hour to do neuro checks. He was so miserable in his neck brace, and it was quite a rough and scary night with uncertainty. But, he slept with me in the chair next to his crib, attached with lots of wires and IV's. He was so amazing through the whole process of everything! I was with Rex the whole hospital stay. Aaron was in and out with us, checking on the kids, going to school, and coming back to be with Rex. He was amazing through it all too!

My mom got word of what happened and rushed to be here the very next morning. She is incredible! Oma got to hang out with us at the hospital for a while, then she went to take care of the kids. So many people jumped in to save us at the last second: Ashliegh and Nate taking our kids for the night, Jenn taking our kids the next day and my mom watching the kids until we came home from the hospital. We are so grateful for everyone! We could not have done this with them!

Because Rex did so well, seemed all there neurologically, they decided surgery was not necessary. Once we were cleared to leave the PICU, we were transferred to the Neuro Trauma Unit. He was watched for another 24 hours. He made so much progress, starting off lethargic, then starting to smile and play, then taking some steps and finally to walking like his cute little toddler self! This little boy was definitely watched over by angels. Every doctor we came across said that this was a miracle that he had no apparent brain damage. After 48 hours there, they cleared him to go home! We were so grateful to get out of there, but we were so impressed by the hospital and our stay. The doctors were great, the staff was great, they had the Ronald McDonald family room with food, showers and candy (my lifesaver). I am sooooo thankful that this scary situation turned out so well and that our little Rex is doing so wonderful!