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traumatic brain injury.

STORIES OF AMAZING RECOVERIES

Submitted By: Samantha Newell
Email: samijo21@live.com

My name is Samantha Newell. Tuesday October 6, 2009, I accidently ran a red light that was covered by the fog. I was t-boned by another car. The other passengers were alright, I was fine and my 6 week old daughter was not.

We flew life flight to Children's Hospital in Columbus OHIO. Her first CT scan came back with a few spots of blood and swelling. The second one they did came back much worse. The doctors told me that her brain was dead, but that her brain stem had yet to be effected, so she was still alive.

The first 24 hours while the swelling was coming bad, she was still trying to breath with the ventilator and had a gag reflex. She would move her foot if you pinched her toe. They stopped giving her a seditive to see if she would respond to the pain, and nothing changed. After a few more hours she stopped trying to breath and began to fail all the tests to see if her Brain Stem had finally been reached by the swelling. She had no more gag reflex and still no change in her eyes. They tried to keep telling me that she was no longer alive but her heart was beating only because of the machines. I choose to take the breathing tubes out. The doctor's said the swelling was only getting worse at this point. When the breathing tubes were takin out, she did not even try to breath on her own, they said that was the final test for her. I guess your CO2 levels are supposed to send a signal to your brain to breath. But once it reaches your Brain Stem there is no more left.

I am still so confused at this and have no answers to help with the grieving. I continued to ask the doctor's over and over again..what if..what if the swelling stopps and what you saw in the CT scan was just a lot of swelling? How can an infant heal faster than an adult in every way but one? I am so confused someone please help me understand this more. I saw her CT scan, but I have never seen a normal CT scan to compair it to.