My niece is getting a metal plate put in her head!!!!! Please PRAY for her!!!

[Garciamommyof3]

I got a call today from my step-mom tonight asking if I had spoken to my sister in Arkansas today. I told her no, I haven't been able to find my cellphone since we moved and so I haven't given anyone the new phone numbers. She went on to tell me that something happened to my six year old niece today and I need to talk to my sister to get the full story but that my niece will have a metal plate put in her head tomorrow! She gave me the number at the hospital to reach my sister. I called but got some kind of answering system. I called again, same thing. I left a message this time and waited about two minutes before the anxiety took over, I started tearing through the last few boxes I have to go through to find my cell phone.

In one box I found the cell phone but no battery. That was at the bottom of another box. I put it in but no charge so I went back through both boxes to find the charger. Nope, found another box still no charger. Then I checked my desk and some drawers in the living room. FOUND it!!. Charge for like 30 seconds and then tried to turn it on. Didn't work, waited, waited yelled for the kids to calm down before mommy had a hysteric breakdown or something. Tried again and it worked. Got the number for my birth mom, punched it in and ran to my room while telling my 7 year old to turn on cartoons and find some lollipops to keep her sisters entertained while mommy talked to some people. Crying and sick so able to cover up the fact that I was crying by saying it was my allergies and the deeper voice was my sore throat, I called my birth mom and she was trying to find a hotel in the city where my niece is hospitalized so she couldn't talk but would call me right back.

I waited for her to call back while trying to call my sister again. My birth mom calls me back tells me pretty much the same thing my step mom said and then gives me the same number. But she adds that my niece was waiting for a MRI when she left a few minutes before I called so maybe my sister was on the phone with her husband. Called again and got through!! I talked to me sister for what seemed like an hour and the whole time I was trying to be brave and keep from crying because as the oldest I can always tell when she is at her breaking point. She tells me it all starting from the beginning:

She had just started her first day at a new job since she lost her old one almost 6 weeks ago. She was the only one working so it has been really hard for them lately. Everything was going good and then a neighbor called and said some man in a white pick up was looking for her or her husband because her daughter, Heather, got hurt at school, but her husband had taken their son to the park to play so he wasn't home. She figured it wasn't a big deal, something minor, so she asked her friend to pick her up and keep her until her husband came back. She began to look for the school's number so she could tell them her friend was going to go get her. Before she could find it her neighbor calls back and says her husband came home and was now headed to the school to get my niece. She said that when my sister's husband returned she would have him call her to let her know how her daughter was doing.

My sister waited an hour before calling her nieghbor back. When she did, her neighbor said they hadn't returned yet. My sister called the school and they informed her that Heather had fallen off the monkey bars and was taken to the hospital. Figuring it was sprain or a broken arm, my sister waited until her boss came back to take off to the hospital and then rushed over. When she arrive she found out that things were much worse than she ever imagined!

Heather was playing on the monkey bars and somehow fell off and landed on the back of her head on the concrete. She lost consciousness and when she woke up she had trouble walking and stumbled. Then she started to vomit and the school realized it was serious so they tried to call my sister, but they don't have a phone and since it was her first day at the new job they didn't have that number.

They sent someone to her apt to let her know and then proceed to take her to the hospital. At the hospital they did MRIs and Xrays and you name it, they tested it. By the time my sister got there, they found that she had fractured the base of her skull. If you run your fingers up the spine on your neck you will find a bump. That is where she has the fracture. Luckily she hadn't started to swell but the hospital couldn't do any more for her so they decide to airlift her to a children's hospital in Little Rock, AR.

They told my sister that she couldn't get on the helicopter because there wasn't enough room and she protested stating that it is a 2 and half hour drive to the other hospital and her daughter was already scared and needed her mom to be with her. Right before the helicopter took off, the head nurse on it asked my sister if she wanted to go with her daughter, She said, "hell, yes" and they said they would squeeze her in.

So they get her to the other hospital and do more test and then the doctors tell my sister, my niece is doing good. She is stable and doesn't seem to have much swelling so that is very good, but the way it fractured the bone is bent toward her brain and the blood vessels there. If she does start to swell it could cause her blood supply to her brain to be cut off or cause her brain damage or make her paralyzed. This rambunctious 6 year old could become just like the famous actor Christopher Reeves (I think that is how you spell it, please forgive me if it is wrong). In order to correct the problem before it gets worse, they have to do surgery. First they have to shave her head, cut it open and remove the broken skull and the parts that are bent in. Then they have to replace these parts with a metal plate! Then we have to pray it works and she heals ok.

My sister is distraught and needs every prayer she can get!! They have been stuggling so much and now this. To make it worse she still has to call her dead beat, good for nothing, ex-husband and let him know what happened. He doesn't have much to do with her and she barely even knows who he is and he is in and out of jail all the time since she was 3 months old, but my sister is still required to keep him informed. I don't know how she is going to do it.

I want to be with her so bad. I told my hubby that if we didn't need it so bad, I would take the rent money we have and drive out tonight. The trip from California to Arkansas is 24 hours straight through but if it is just me and my girls I am looking at 2 days at least. I don't know what my dad is planning but I am going to call him tomorrow and see what he thinks. If he plans on going then I will be too! We can take turns driving and share the cost of gas and that way we get there faster. my girls would miss school but this is an emergency.

When I talked to my husband on the way home from getting him from work he became distraught. He study to be phlebologist, blood analyser or something like that, when he was in Mexico and so he had some training as a doctor and as soon as I told him where it was he said, "oh, God no." He knows how bad it is and  how much I want to go to be there for her and he fells bad that we can't afford it. I am expecting money from my school this week because I had to drop a class after I had a late term miscarriage this summer, so they are refunding some of my loan money from that class but it isn't a whole lot and I got a call today saying it was an accident that they sent it and they need me to redeposit it to go the class I am suppose to start on Thursday but I don't know, maybe we will just pay it back later and use to go.

If any one reads this, Please Pray for my niece Heather and Her mom April. Please tell everyone you know to do so and hopefully she will be better! Thank you!!

[SheilaJean]

Sep. 29, 2009 at 11:17 PM

My prayer are with your sister and her little girl as well as the rest of your family, Please keep this updated!

[Garciamommyof3]

Sep. 30, 2009 at 1:02 AM

Thank you so much. Last I heard tonight she came through surgery well but is still being sedatied on and off for the cat scans to make sure she is ok. When she is awake she is responsive but not quite herself yet, probly from the meds. Will keep updating!

(Original Poster)

[Garciamommyof3]

Sep. 30, 2009 at 1:54 AM

Please help Bump so we can get more people praying for her!

(Original Poster)