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Joy was born on Janurary 7,1975 and was just fine until just after her
12th birthday in 1987. On Feb. 24th, a cold winter morning in Michigan,
she disobeyed us and walked to school, for her family it was the
beginning of a never-ending nightmare.
When Joy was growing up she liked to run, jump, play and dance just
like other kids. She was always trying to be funny and laughed a lot.
When she was 12 and in junior high school she began to like going to
school dances and staying overnight with friends and doing her nails.
Feb. 24,1987, a cold winter morning in Michigan.
It was 8am when a young girl knocked on our door. She was the same
girl who had left with Joy to go to school. She seemed very upset and
was making very little sense to me, I couldn't understand what she
was trying to tell me..broken sentences like .. I did go to school
with Joy, but she got hurt ...a car knocked her down .. it looked bad ..
they took her away ..
"Who took her away?", I asked.
"I don't know .. an ambulance I think", she replied
"Where did they take her?", I asked, although at this point I am getting a
little frustrated trying to get information out of this hysterical girl.
"I don't know", she said.
I told her that I had to go then to find out and closed the door.
I called the school - no one knew where Joy was, but the the principle's
assistant didn't think it was Joy who was hit by the car, she thought they
said a boy was hit. She would ask the principle but he was at the site
of the accident and not available to ask. Finally she would ask Joy's teacher,
but she wasn't in her classroom, so I had to call back in a few minutes.
Meanwhile I called the hospitals, none had seen her yet, she hadn't
arrived anywhere.
I called the school again. Still didn't think it was Joy even though she was
missing from her class...and don't worry, if it is her, I understand it was only
minor cuts and bruises.
Called the hospitals again, the first one said, "She was here but there
wasn't anything we could do for her here, so we sent her on to St. Joesph's".
That scared me plenty! Minor cuts and bruises?
Called St. Joeseph's again but they wouldn't tell me anything except that
"Yes she was there. and Could we come right away."
Hubby called his brother Woody who came immediately and took us to the hospital.
We were pretty shaken up by this time and we kept Wendy with us instead of sending
her on to school because we didn't know how bad this was or how long we would be at the hospital.
Someone got in touch with Rodney at his high school and brought him to the hospital also.
We were met a the door by a Catholic Nun, now we were Protestant but that's ok outside of
the fact that it was somewhat alarming to be met at the door of the ER by someone next to a priest.
Then they called the pastor of the church we'd been attending.
Then every immediate family member available was called.
Doctors of all ranks from interns to neurosurgeons came 2 by 2 to tell us things which
we could not begin to comprehend. Finally after I don't know how many hours had
passed they told us she was brain dead, no electrical activity whatsoever in the brain,
and the damage was severe and extensive. (Minor cuts and bruises?)
You need to decide about pulling the plug within 3 days, they said.
Nightmare had begun. Surgeries, tests, inconsistencies in reports, no serial casting
for about 6 weeks, (none at all in St Joe's where she was for 5 weeks and 2 days),
tracheotomy - on the 22nd day - and they told me 10-14 days could irreparably
damage the voice box, the larynyx with that large breathing hose down her throat,
ICP - Inter Cranial Pressure guage which they had to drill another hole in her skull
for, the first night. For the entire 5 weeks and 2 days they would tell us several
times daily and nightly that she was dying any minute. No possiblity of survival.
However when nearly 4am of Feb. 25th they told us there was a tiny bit of electrical
activity in her brain and "but don't get your hopes up", there was no question for us -
We could not pull the plug.
On April 5,1987 Joy was moved to Mott's Childrens' Hospital at UofM
The one thing the doctors were right about was that since Joy was unaware of what
was going on around her .. It was her family that suffered the most, seeing and feeling everything
she was unaware of.
Over 10 months she was released from hospital to try going home but her frustration
was too great and she was violent in the extreme, she wasn't ready yet.
After only about 3 months she was back in the hospital, then on to Florida for
head injury rehab for
She has been home now 10 years and requires 24 hour attendant care for
the rest of her life. The first 3 years she was home she went to high school in
a special education class doing 3rd grade level work, but her violent tantrums had
not decreased in the Florida rehab, instead they had increased. It took us over
6 years to undo the damage.
Her condition is much improved of late - in these things - she has much less
frustration, a greater acceptance, physically healthy, sees humor in things, she
likes to color, do word search puzzles, ride the stationary bike (it is built like a chair),
sit in the porch swing and watch the birds and traffic, watch cartoons and
Disney movies, she likes music and tries to sing, picnics, boating, and I even
caught her reading!
It was about 7:40am when I heard the sirens. My youngest daughter
heard them too and wanted me to turn on the police scanner to see
what had happened, but I said it was probably too late to catch that
announcement and we had to get her ready for kindergarten. Both
Joy and her older brother Rodney had left for school already but they
went to different schools because Rodney was in high school.
She was still on life support and they began serial casting. Her face had contorted,
twisted to one side and hardened (tense), the day they put the shunt in her face relaxed.
A shunt is a plastic tube that was placed into the brain to leak off excess fluid and
therefore decrease the swelling of the brain, it was placed from her brain to her
stomach so they had to cut her in 3 more places for that. It was over 5 months before
she began to come out of the coma.
15 months.
She didn't much care for that before the accident! 
March 30, 2005
Our story -
In September 1984 Henry was laid off from a union coal mine in southeastern Kentucky.
In June 1985 we headed to Michigan for work.
Feb. 1987 our second child, a daughter, walked to school one morning and was hit by a car.
At first we were told “minor cuts and bruises” but when we arrived at the ER we were met by a nun
and neurosurgeons began coming out to us and saying things
like “right now we can’t even say she is alive”,
“there is no electrical activity in her brain”,
“there is severe brain damage”,
“she is on life support”.
The doctors at that first hospital would not touch her unless we promised not to sue them for mal-practice.
We promised, and so when there was malpractice involved we did not sue.
The insurance company sent an RN to the hospital to investigate and there were several instances of mal-practice found.
The insurance company became angry with us because we could not and would not sue the hospital in Ypsilanti, MI.
After five weeks and two days of being told
“there is no possible chance for survival”
she was moved to U of M, Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, MI,
where we were told that if she had any chance at all it would be there.
The first operation there was the insertion of a shunt to relieve some of the swelling and pressure
from fluid on the brain which immediately relaxed her face which had drawn to one side.
After nearly a year in hospital she began coming out of the coma. We took her home when she was still
eighth level ranchos (coma), at which point she had extreme violent behavior, sleep apnea, asphyxiation,
and many other complicated problems. Some of the nurses and therapists thought it was to soon for her to be
released but others and the doctors thought it might be good for her to be at home through the holidays.
We had training with nurses and therapists at U of M for almost two years (both during her hospitalization and the following year so that we could care for her at home.
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This Page is designed and © by me Joyce Porter 1999
Updated October 16, 2003
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