Last Friday, November 5, Gabriel's golden birthday, I was at work and received a text message from my youngest sister MaeLyn who lives in Iowa. It was actually a picture text of her with a message that said "24 feet up in a tree, I can see you from here" Not understanding exactly what she was doing I texted back "what are you doing?" to which she replied "hunting." "Be safe and have fun" was my response and I went on about my day.
Less than 3 hours later as I was leaving work I realized that I had received another text message and this time from my dad. Not thinking anything of it I started for my drive to the school to pick up the boys, which happens to be one of the things that I look forward to most, well on work days that is. As I opened up the text message from my dad, I was thinking he was sending his oldest grandson a happy birthday message. Instead the message read this..."Here's the situation...Aaron
(my sister's boyfriend) fell 25 feet out of his deer stand...were at NH
(our hometown) hospital...his T12 and L1 are fractured and we are heading to Rochester
(Mayo Clinic) now...airlifting him... more later... please pray"
Immediately thinking the worse I called my dad right away and said "oh my God what happened?" To which he calmly (or at least pretended to be calm) explained that MaeLyn and Aaron had gone bow hunting and were in a tree stand. Aaron let MaeLyn use his safety harness given that she was a novice hunter and was there more to keep him company that to do any actual hunting. Dad didn't seem to know many details but only that Aaron lost his balance up on the tree stand and fell more than 2 1/2 stories off the stand and to the ground below. After getting him to the New Hampton hospital they took some x-rays and found 2 of his vertebrae had been fractured and due to the seriousness of his injuries they were airlifting him to Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Dad said they didn't have any other information at this time as they were racing up to Rochester to be with him. I asked how MaeLyn was and he said doing the best she can and then I asked to talk with her.
As she got on the phone I could really only understand about every fifth word between her uncontrollable sobbing and please pray Ang, please pray. Trying my best to remain composed I said we will MaeLyn we'll all pray very hard. Please keep us posted and we love you. Talk to you soon.
Over the next 12 hours, which seemed like 4 days, we received texted updates all which seemed to reinforce the message that we needed to send as many prayers as we could.
MaeLyn would text... I know he's in good hands, I just hope he is ok, Angie I feel so bad...
Me: It isn't your fault...
MaeLyn: He gave his safety harness to me ang
Me: It still isn't your fault, it was an accident, keep the faith, we are sending lots of prayers..
Dad texted after they got to see him for the first time upon arriving at Mayo in Rochester... We just saw him and he is in lots of pain...he is going into surgery...looks like he is in need of lots of prayers...his back is messed up bad...
Upon arriving at Mayo the doctors assessed him and determined he needed to go into emergency surgery not only to see the damage but to start the repair process right away. Before going into surgery Dad texted...
Here is update... surgery at 10 p.m. and going in from back...T12 is smashed and L1 is bad...not sure on spine...will take 3 to 5 hours before we know so pray...
With my lack of medical knowledge I asked what does that mean and dad texted back, above waist paralysis and spinal cord damage is what they are worried about...
At 4 in the morning we received another update... surgery over, lots of metal and it will take months of recovery, spine was out of place, now waiting to see him, will be long road but he has a good chance of recovery...he is young and strong so that is good.
With every new message it gave us hope and reminded us to give thanks to God because he was at least still alive and that surgery went so well.
For the last 5 days I have to admit my thoughts continuously drift back to Aaron and what his family and MaeLyn must be going through. We know now that this his recovery is not measured in days, weeks or even months. We also know that in just a matter of 5 very short days Aaron has made marathons of improvement. He went from being in a medically induced coma to being awake, alert and even sitting up. To think about the degree of injury he has to his back and how well he is doing, is a miracle in itself. And Aaron seems determined to accept what challenge is in front of him and forge through to get where he wants to be. We are thankful Aaron has feeling from the waist up and is able to use his arms. We are thankful he didn't sustain a head injury and still has his outgoing personality and smart wit. We continue to pray that someday he will regain feeling in his legs and lower half of his body and understand this is where this journey is measured in years, not days.
Although my sister and Aaron have been together for some time, I have only had the privilege of meeting him this past summer when we visited Iowa. In our short stay, he made quite the impression on us and especially with two little boys. Aaron went with us to Toy Story 3 and Michael insisted he sit on Aaron's lap. Half way through the movie Michael fell asleep and seemed content as could be sitting with his new buddy Aaron. It is clear to see how happy Aaron makes my sister and how much they care for each other.
I told MaeLyn that although they are going through hell right now, God will bring them through. And although their life will never be the way it was prior to 4:30 p.m. on Friday, November 5, their life can be better and someday they'll look back and know that this is a defining moment in their life. I know the road ahead will have its peaks and definitely its valleys, but as they continue on together with hope, faith and a positive determination to get better, it indeed will.
Please pray for Aaron, his family and MaeLyn as they go through this difficult time.
Aaron we constantly have you in our thoughts and always in our prayers.
Until next time,
Angie
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| Aaron is the second from the right with my youngest sister MaeLyn. |
