My life changed on June 27, 2000. My 7 year old son Dylan was hit by a SUV. You always tell your children to stop and look before you across the street. This time Dylan didn't. He ran across the street to get his tennis ball and on the way back he was hit. The truck hit him on the right side of his head, hit the telephone pole, bounced off and hit Dylan in the head again. Dylan then rolled under the truck. The first time I seen Dylan he was laying under the truck with the back wheel of the truck on his head. He wasn't moving. My first reaction was he was gone. All I could think about was my son was gone. My friend Terri grabed me and said no he is crying. Its okay he is alive. The police officer called me over to get under the truck and calm Dylan down so that they could put him on the stretcher. All I kept on saying its okay baby everything will be fine. The rescue squad driver had to make a decision because they wanted to have a helicopter come but they couldn't tell him how long it would take so he decided to drive Dylan to the hospital which is 20 mintues away. I sat in the back of the ambulance and I watch Dylan fight for his life all the way to the hospital. As soon as we got to the hospital the Trauma Team was already waiting for Dylan. They took him into a room and immediately started working on him. The doctor didn't think he was going to make it through the night because his brain level was so high. They put a bolt in his head to check his brain waves. The third day he had to have surgery to remove a blood clot on his brain. He was in an induced coma for 10 days they tried to take him out the fifth day but couldn't because his brain level wouldn't go down. On the tenth day they started taking him out of the coma. He had one day where we didn't think he was going to make it because they had to keep on bagging him all day. The next day he was fine. He started to move his eyes. You could ask him if he knew you where there and he would squeeze your hand. The next step was taking the ventalor out. The doctor kept on putting it off because Dylan had to breathe on his own or he would have to have a trachea because they couldn't put the force air mask on him because of the fractures. My son did it all on his own. Once they saw he could eat on his own we were sent to the step down unit.. We were in the step down unit one day and then in regular peds. Three days before Dylan was suppose to leave the hospital for rehab he sat up in his bed all by hisself. From that day we just put him in a wheelchair and wheeled him around the hospital. Two days before he was suppose to leave hospital he started to take small steps. We started rehab on July 21, 2000. As soon as we got to rehab hospital they evaluated Dylan to see what he needed. He wouldn't walk for them so they just let it go. On Saturday morning then started his PT. The therapist had him walking the parallel bars. He walked them 4 times. Then she asked him if he wanted to walk to his room and he almost made it back. He had alot of vistiors that weekend. We would take him outside in the play area. He actually said to me Mom do you want to play one on one with me. He was sitting in his wheelchair shooting basketballs in the hoop. They had a play gym there and he wanted to go on it so bad. His older brother and sister would go with him so that he could go on the slide. By Monday morning Dylan was not using the wheelchair anymore. Dylan stayed in the rehab until October 2000. He started a private school then and is doing really well. I don't think we could of ever made it through this without the love and support of family, friends and my town. The doctors and nurses call my son the Miracle Kid.
