This post is the tenth in a series of true stories about children’s health care at WakeMed.
Patty, Marty, Shane and Austin
On Mother’s Day of 2009, Patty, Marty, and their two children Shane and Austin were driving home to Granville County after spending the morning strawberry picking. Their car was hit head-on while waiting at a stoplight.
When the paramedics arrived to the scene of the accident, Patty remembers asking where her family was being taken. When the paramedic responded that they would be taken to the WakeMed Trauma Center, Patty was relieved. “I said, ‘Thank you. If you were going to take me anywhere else, I was going to crawl up U.S. 1 to get to WakeMed.’”
Patty broke both of her legs in the accident, her husband suffered from a serious concussion and injuries to his ribs and sternum, and their two boys were also injured. Austin, who was 9 years old at the time, had a concussion and some bruising from the car seatbelt. He stayed at WakeMed for 3 days. Little Shane was only 3 years old, and his injuries seemed minor at first.
Dr. Mark Piehl, pediatric hospitalist and intensivist, examined Shane when he arrived at WakeMed. Initially, Shane seemed normal, his CT scans were normal and he was going to be released. But then his tongue started drifting to the left, which was soon discovered to be caused by a small amount of bleeding on his brain stem. Shane had a spinal injury which required major surgery.
Because Patty’s and Marty’s injuries required immediate surgery, they were both unable to stay with their children during their hospitalization. Dr. Stacy Bennett brought Austin up to visit Patty after her surgery, and even made arrangements for Austin to spend the night in Patty’s room.
“Everyone at WakeMed was awesome in their care of my family,” Patty said. “Shane and I spent 3 months in rented hospital beds in our home until we were both able to walk again. Today Shane and I are still recovering, but we are starting to get back to our normal routine. Our family is so glad to put this past summer behind us but we never forget the people of WakeMed, like Dr. Piehl and Dr. Bennett and all of the fantastic nurses. We cannot thank them enough for taking such good care of us and for putting my legs back together.”
