Chapter XII – Anthony’s 4-Wheeler Wreck

When Anthony was sixteen I got the phone call no mother ever wants to get. On August 16, 2003, I was in the bedroom cleaning out the closet when the phone rang, it was Wyatt.  He was shaken up and said, “Anthony has been hurt very badly.  Anthony and I were riding 4-wheelers and Anthony’s 4-wheeler flipped over on him. I put Anthony on my 4-wheeler and took him to the nearest house and the ambulance is on the way!”

I had no idea what Wyatt was talking about so he put a man on the phone and the man told me Wyatt rode a 4-wheeler up to his house and asked him for help.  He said my son wasn’t doing well and the ambulance was taking him to River Oaks Hospital. We hung up and I immediately headed to River Oaks. 

When I arrived at River Oaks Hospital Anthony wasn’t there which seemed rather strange to me because he left before I did and he was in an ambulance.  I went outside to wait on the ambulance to arrive. Not long afterwards, the lady working at the desk came outside and told me since Anthony had a head injury they were taking him to University Hospital instead.  This was the first time I had heard of a head injury which concerned me a little bit.  I got in the car and drove to University.

When I got there Anthony was already in the ER so they allowed me to go back and see him.  I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.  Anthony had on a neck brace, was violently rocking back and forth, kept throwing off is blanket, and was talking crazy.  Anthony kept trying to take off his neck brace because he said he could not breathe with it on. The nurse kept telling him to leave it alone because he could paralyze himself. Anthony didn’t want to hear this and started cussing at the nurses and continued trying to pull his neck brace off.  This entire time he had his eyes closed so I wasn’t sure if he was aware of what he was saying or not.

The nurse explained to me once Anthony arrived at the hospital, the ambulance driver put a neck brace on him because they were checking him for a fractured back. Not only that but while in the ambulance Anthony kept throwing up so they were checking him for brain damage as well, and a broken arm.

Not long after I got to the hospital, Wyatt, along with Brittany and her family arrived. Brittany was Anthony’s girlfriend at the time. Since Wyatt was the one that was with Anthony at the time of the accident, I took him back first to see Anthony and we both just stood there staring at him. 

After standing there a few minutes Wyatt explained to me what happened.  He told me, “Anthony and I went 4-wheeler riding in a field that had a lot of dirt mounds and we were jumping the mounds.  Anthony was jumping real high and lost control of his 4-wheeler while in the air and they both came tumbling to the ground.  The 4-wheeler bounced up and down on Anthony’s back a couple of times before landing on him. I ran over to Anthony but when I got there Anthony was unconscious, his tongue was hanging out, and he was foaming at the mouth. I touched Anthony and he started shaking, he was having a seizure.  I slapped him a couple of times to get him to wake up but he wouldn’t.  I slapped him a couple more times and he came to a little.  When Anthony finally woke up he didn’t know who he was, who I was, or where he was. Anthony stood up to get on the 4-wheeler, passed out and fell down.  He tried one more time, passed out and fell down again.  Finally Anthony woke up enough that I managed to get him on the back of the 4-wheeler and put his left arm, which you could tell was broken in several places, around my neck and his right arm around my waist and took off to the nearest neighborhood. On the way there Anthony kept losing consciousness and I’d have to hold on to him to keep him from falling off of the 4-wheeler.  When I found a neighborhood I drove to the closest person I could find to get help.  I really thought he was going to die.”  I thanked him for saving Anthony’s life and told him it would be okay.  Even though I was very concerned about my son I had to stay strong for those around me and for myself.

I am very thankful the gentleman was in his yard and made the decision to call an ambulance.  I called him and thanked him after everything was over and done. 

Wyatt’s father was an RN at University and when he found out Anthony was in there he went to check on him.  He promised me he’d keep an eye on Anthony and make sure they took good care of him.  I thanked him.

Brittany wasn’t old enough to go back and see Anthony but she happened to know a nurse that worked in the ER and he let her go see him.  When we got to where Anthony was, Brittany started crying so I held her close and told her it would be ok.  She just stood there and looked at him and neither of us said anything. 

Not long afterwards they came to get Anthony for an MRI to be sure he didn’t have a brain injury so Brittany and I went to the waiting room with her family and Wyatt.  After what seemed like forever the nurse came to the waiting room and told us Anthony didn’t have any back, brain, or neck injuries so they took the neck brace off. 

Brittany’s family left not long after that but Brittany and Wyatt stayed with me the entire time.  Around 2:00 a.m. I took both of them home to shower, we were all very tired. After we showered Wyatt and I went back to the hospital but Brittany stayed home and joined us later that morning. Brittany didn’t leave Anthony’s side the entire time he was in the hospital until Monday when her mother made her to go school.  Wyatt also stayed at the hospital until Sunday evening.  A lot of people were praying for him and their prayers worked.

Sometime during the night they took Anthony to the floor since he didn’t have a brain injury but he was unconscious and had been for hours.  The entire time he was in the hospital I stayed by his side. I didn’t want him to wake up and freak out because he didn’t know where he was.   I wasn’t too concerned about his condition because he was on the floor and not in a unit so that meant he wasn’t going to die.  Plus I’d worked in a hospital before and I’d seen this type of thing over and over.  However, it’s a little different when it’s your own child.

It was two days later but seemed like forever when Anthony woke up.  I was in the room with him so when he woke up I was the first thing he saw.  The first words out of his mouth were, “I’m hungry.”  I started laughing because Anthony loved to eat so it was good to hear this. I went downstairs to McDonald’s and bought him fries and a hamburger.  When I got back to the room he was asleep again, I didn’t wake him. When he did wake up I gave him his food and he started cussing at me and told me the food was awful.  I guess it was because it was cold. I was very upset at this point because I’d been by his side this entire time and I was very tired.  I didn’t deserve to be treated that way so I sternly told him, “I’ve been up here with you for the past two days waiting on you to wake up!!!  I went downstairs to get your food and this is how you treat me!!! You better change that attitude real quick or you will find yourself up here alone!!!  I don’t deserve to be treated like that!!!”  He laid there a minute, apologized to me, and ate his food.

Later that day the nurse came in and told me Anthony needed a bath then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to bathe him or if I wanted her to bathe him.  I thought this was a rather odd question, usually the nurse bathes the patient plus this was my sixteen year old son (don’t think that was a good idea).  Anyway I asked Anthony which he preferred and he said he wanted me to bathe him.  I was very uncomfortable doing this. 

Once I started bathing him I realized why the nurse had asked me that question.  He had loose stool underneath him and she didn’t want to clean it up.  When I went to turn him on his side I couldn’t hold him up and bathe him too so she ended up bathing him anyway.  Later I asked him why he wanted me to bathe him and his answer was, “Because I didn’t want a big black lady bathing me.”  I just looked at him with confusion and told him, “That was not a big black lady, it was a very nice looking young white lady” then we both started laughing.

The next day they let Anthony go home.  All was okay except for his left arm.  It was broken in three places so they gave him a metal plate in his arm and pins in his wrist which he’d have for the rest of his life along with several weeks of physical therapy ahead of him. He was not looking forward to that.  The doctor told him he could have the pins removed once the bones grew back or he could leave them in there whichever he chose. He chose to leave them in. 

Anthony spent most of his time at Brittany’s house once he got out of the hospital.  Rhonda, her mother, didn’t work and she offered to help out with him so I could go to work.  I was very thankful for Rhonda because if not for her help I would have missed a lot of work or Anthony would have had to go to work with me and spend all day in my office.

I think he went to physical therapy three times before quitting.  He also took his cast off himself while at Brittany’s house because he was tired of wearing it.  I told him that was a bad idea because his wrist and arm may not heal well.  He got the idea from me because when Brett was five he broke his arm and instead of taking him back to the doctor to have his cast removed I removed the cast myself because we didn’t have insurance and I couldn’t afford a doctor bill.

The first thing Anthony did when he got back to our house was get on the 4-wheeler and drive to the end of our street popping a wheelie along the way.  This was the best thing he could do to prevent him from being afraid of 4-wheelers plus it let me know Anthony was still Anthony and it did my heart good to see him on a 4-wheeler again.