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David "Dave" Burton
This story is about our 17 year old son "Matt" who was in a MVA May 21, 1998. It was the last day of school for the year and Matt and some of his friends from high school were going to camp out that Friday evening at the local swimming hole to celebrate the end of final exams. We received a call about midnight that is every parents worst fear,"your son was involved in a one car rollover at a low water crossing and is trapped and Starflight is on the way." We live about 45 minutes from the nearest trauma center but it seemed like an eternity before we got there. We could see the helicopter as it was headed to the hospital and our oldest son met us there and could only tell us that Matt was still alive but had severe head injuries. The doctors told us early Saturday that the swelling of Matt's brain would take his life before the weekend was over. I don't remember much of that day except somehow we pulled ourselves together long enough to get with our pastor and prepared for our son's funeral.

Well, Matt did make it through the weekend but the doctors told us that he would be a "vegetable" and would be on a respirator, unable to breath on his own. Matt did come off the respirator and again we were told that the best thing for Matt was to withhold treatment and let him die from secondary causes as the prospects of him being in a vegetated state for the rest of his life was not in his best interests or ours. This was not an option with us as we could see him fighting for his life so we turned everything over to God and waited, prayed, and cried until the days all ran together and became weeks. Matt finally started to respond on July 3, 1998, I think it was the happiest day of my life! Over the next couple of weeks he was able to communicate with us and it seemed all our prayers were being answered. The joy was short lived however as our son was given the wrong medication the first week of August and it put him back into a coma as his blood sugar dropped to 7, again they told us it would be touch and go because they had never heard of anyone surviving with the sugar count that low.

Matt beat the odds once again and came to long enough to tell my wife "happy birthday" on the 17th of September! What a glorious day for us! By the 18th of December we were told he could come home and would continue his therapy as an outpatient after the holidays.

I am pleased to report that Matt is now attending high school 1/2 days per week and was enrolled in Honors Art Class Feb. 15th. He also took his 1st steps unassisted a few weeks ago! We are not kidding ourselves into believing the road ahead is going to be easy but with God's strength we will shall overcome the obstacles that we are facing and become an even stronger family unit. I am fortunate to have a caring wife, one that I am sure I could not have survived without, and sons who took over when I couldn't go on. Throughout this entire ordeal I have been amazed at the goodness in people who cried with us, laughed with us, gave us hope, and prayed for us when we were too tired to go on. These folks are the real heroes in this tragedy and so I say to all that lends a helping hand to a person in need, God Bless You and you will never be forgotten!

Dave