Were they in a parent's car, or a friend's? Were they hit by a drunk? Was it a one-car accident?
Those are all legitimate questions. Some folks here initially wondered why the taxpwyers were picking up the tab for injuries to these kids that should have been covered by an auto insurance policy.
“do we know the circumstances of the accident?”
Based on another thread on this subject, the accident happened when the mom was driving her SUV, hit a patch of black ice, and slammed into a tree. One kid ended up against the tree. The other kid hit his head against the window. Apparently no one else in the SUV was seriously injured, leading to legitimate questions as to whether the kids were wearing seatbelts, and whether the parents also avoided auto insurance.
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.