Although most patients with brain injuries do not experience severe motor disabilities, many show problems with strength, coordination and movement. Even patients who recover well still lose some rapid motor response.
Gemma and Graeme Frost experienced all of these types of symptoms, although the way the symptoms appeared and the children’s recoveries have been quite different. On December 4, 2004, the car the children were riding in hit a patch of black ice and spun into a tree. Gemma was sitting right where the car struck the tree and sustained an open skull fracture, shattering her left eye orbit, leaving the eye swollen shut. Doctors used a bolt to monitor and relieve intracranial pressure that was causing her brain to appear “cloudy” on CT scans. She remained in a coma for three weeks. Graeme, sitting right behind her, was injured when his head struck a window with such force that the glass broke. He developed bleeding in several ventricles in his brain and remained in a coma for several days.
Doctors removed the drain used to relieve the swelling in Graeme’s skull after a few days, but the pressure returned and he underwent surgery to put in a shunt. Once Gemma emerged from her coma, doctors planned reconstructive surgery on her eye, but cancelled it once they discovered an abscess filled with shards of wood and glass.
Graeme’s injury primarily affected his motor skills. He could not walk or swallow and relied on a naso-gastric tube for nourishment for nearly five months. Gemma’s core issues were cognitive—she could walk, but couldn’t remember how to talk, what many words meant, how to dress or how to brush her teeth. “She had to relearn everything,” says the children’s mother, Bonnie.
Isn't it funny (in a sad way) that EVERY DBM account of this accident omits mention of the driver? As if the vehicle were propelling itself?
Look, nobody wants the children to suffer. Everyone wants them to have medical care and to recover.
But when taxpayers are forced to foot the bill, they have a right to question:
(a) the parents' own responsibility for the injuries (were the kids wearing seat belts? who was driving? was the driver insured?)
(b) the parents' own capability to find a way to pay for their childrens' medical expenses -- without soaking the taxpayers.
These were some horrific injuries.
I wonder if they were wearing seatbelts and if the car had airbags - if so, this is a very chilling story.
Thanks, Victoria. I think my original speculation that the kids were not wearing seat belts was wrong, if the car hit sideways.
But then brother would not be sitting “behind”.
Horrible accident. I cannot imagine what the parents and grandparents went through.
I am so glad that the kids survived and are up and about.