Skylar's Accident (2 year anniversary)

Today is the two year anniversary of Skylar's accident that left him paralyzed. It has been two years of ups & downs for Skylar as well as all of us who love him and are close to him. I celebrate his life on this day and the fact that he worked so hard to do things the doctors never thought he would do. During the first week of Skylar's accident, the doctor at the hospital tried very hard to encourage my sister to remove Skylar from life support. We were told that besides never being able to walk or move anything below his shoulders, it was also possible that Skylar would never breath on his own again without a ventilator, eat on his own without a feeding tube or speak again. To make matters worse, just days after his accident he developed pneumonia and the bacteria for meningitis. My sister struggled with making the decision of whether or not Skylar would want to live in this condition. The fact that he seemed to be fighting for his life made the decision easier for her plus there was no way I was going to go along with turning off the ventilator. My children and I were very much against it and I prayed for guidance in helping my sister make this decision. I was angered by the doctor's encouragement of my sister to disconnect. Of course, she wanted to do what was best for her son and here is a doctor telling her that Skylar would not want to live like this. I remember thinking that this doctor doesn't know Skylar as a person or as a loved one but strictly as a patient who was no longer functioning on his own. The remainder of the story is below:


Skylar's truck. It was a 4-wheel drive. He ran off the road and hit a concrete bridge and flipped. He had been drinking and was driving too fast and he was not wearing his seat belt. Since his accident, Skylar has had 2 friends killed in seperate accidents and both had been drinking. When will they ever learn??????


Skylar 3-4 weeks after the accident with his Mom and sister, Lauren. He was on the ventilator at this time.


Skylar as he is today with his Mom at Lee's wedding (September 12th)

Re post from February 14, 2009
In the early morning on Sept. 29th, 2007, Skylar, who was 19 years old at the time, wrecked his truck. Immediately after the accident, he was airlifted to Huntsville Hospital, and stopped breathing twice on the way to the hospital. In the emergency room he was placed on a ventilator and taken to ICU . It was during this time that we were told that he had suffered a complete C4-C6 injury and he was paralyzed from the neck down. The next day he underwent surgery in which his neck was fused together using a piece of bone from the bone bank. We were told that he had a 50% chance of surviving. A few days later he came down with the bacterial virus that causes meningitis and developed pneumonia. After receiving care and fighting for his life at Huntsville Hospital, he was transferred to The Shepherd Center Rehabilitation Specialty Hospital Center in Atlanta, GA. on October 11th, 2007. When he first arrived, he was vent dependent, had a feeding tube, no feeling below his elbows and no movement below his shoulders. Due to him being vent dependent, they had to perform a tracheotomy so the tubes in his mouth could be removed in hopes of reducing infection. On December 17th, 2007 we were able to bring Skylar home without a ventilator, without a feeding tube and he was able to speak. However, he still has no movement but we are thankful he has the ability to breath, eat and speak, and he worked very hard in rehabilitation to recover those abilities. As time goes by, Skylar and our family are coping with what paralysis actually means. Besides being unable to walk, Skylar cannot feed himself, brush his teeth, bathe himself, dress himself, scratch his nose, cough, or do any of the many things we take for granted each day. He has to endure pain, catheters, turning schedules, pressure sores, blood pressure issues, urinary tract infections, depression, ingrown toe nails, and the list goes on. He is totally dependent on those of us who take care of him each day, and this is especially hard on him. We pray each day that with God's help, we will be able to help him regain at least some of what he has lost and get back some of his independence. This has been a life altering journey for Skylar, as well as all of us who are close to him. He is so much more to us than he will ever know and we are very thankful to be a part of this new journey in his life. . . .

"Life is too short to wake up in the morning with regrets,
So love the people who treat you right,
Forget about the one's who don't,
And believe that everything happens for a reason.
If you get a chance, take it.
If it changes your life, let it.
Nobody said life would be easy,
They just promised it would be worth it."



It has been hard writing this and I have cried almost the entire time while doing so. As I said in the beginning of this post there have been alot of ups and downs since the accident. There are the bad days when Skylar tells us that he is miserable and wishes he were not alive. It is during these days that I struggle with the question of did we do the right thing, were we only thinking about ourselves and not Skylar. Then there are these days shown in the photo. In this photo, Lee and a friend have Skylar's arms and are dancing with him at the wedding. It is these times we would have missed had he not survived and there are alot of them. I cannot imagine life without him in it.