Location: Arizona

Phone: 520.459.1440

Email: shaydensmom@msn.com

Website: http://www.lotten.de/shayden/deutsch/index.htm

Filmclip: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2717746342826973937

Age at the time of Accident: 3years 11mos.

Date of Accident: 6 January 2007

Location of the Accident: Neighbors pool

 

Therapies done and ongoing:

• Keno
• Speech
• Physical
• Occupational
• Hippotherapy

Before I left I checked on Lunch for the boys which was half way done! I told the boys one more time to stay in or go out, but not run in and out the whole time since it was still a bit chilly, then I left them with my husband to go shopping with my Baby daughter for the BBQ! When I came back a good hour later, my husbands car was gone and I kind of fussed to my self since I knew he had only one booster seat in there and two hoped that he didn't go far with the boys then! As soon as I stopped the car, a neighbor which I didn't know came running up to the car (we had just moved in to the house about 1.5 weeks prior to that day)!

He told me that my husband was at the Emergency room! I kind of felt fear creeping up inside of me but also was kind of a bit annoyed, I was thinking broken bones, the kids getting to wild and breaking something or so- so I asked which one of the two had hurt himself and then he said there where TWO Ambulances! I felt like fainting, I had thought my husband took the boys so it couldn't be too serious, but him calling an Ambulance and then also needing TWO- it HAD to be something extremely serious! As we headed of for the hospital I asked him, if he knew what had happened and he said "I'm not sure but I think the boys fell in the pool"- I just remember screaming "but we don't have a pool how in God's name did they get to a pool!?"

Apparently the neighbor had one, at this point and for a while after we did not know how they had gotten out of our yard, both Gates where locked. At the hospital I found out that indeed both boys had drowned and had been found dead by my husband who pulled them out and immediately began CPR on both of them until the Ambulance arrived. Front he time they started working with their Airbag to get Air in them and took over from my husband it took them a little over half an hour to get a puls and heartbeat back for the first time in Shayden, in Ryan I do believe it took longer then that even. It took them another about an hour or more until they both kept it steady and where stable enough to be flown with the Medi-Copter to Tucson a 60 mile flight from here! Each flew in their own Helicopter back to back!  At the big Hospital they where put on a Ice bed and cooled back down all of the way to 88-90 degrees for the following 24 hours to minimize brain damage and organ damage! Shayden just like Ryan had showed some slight brain swelling at the first Scan but even though he had been a Seizure patient prior to the accident had not started seizing! We where told though that both the boys would more then likely not survive the night!

Both beat the odds and did survive, nor where they brain-dead! Shayden improved rather quickly, Docs where baffled. After waking up he couldn't focus his vision, he couldn't move, he couldn't talk, eat or drink and had severe posturing! Even it was predicted that Shayden'd never walk again, he in the end walked out of the hospital! We don't know why there is such a big difference between those two boys, is it the 13 month age difference, did Shayden manage to doggy paddle for a while, we don't know! We DO know that the pool is usually heated all year round and every Wednesday the pool gets serviced. Everything was ok on that day but three days later on the day the boys drowned the heater had broken and the water was ice-cold- we know that this was the only reason why our boys are still here today and we know because the water was so cold the EMT's didn't give up in working on them, they knew the boys had a chance!

2.5 month after the accident Shayden's G-tube was removed, he keeps improving slowly but surely with only little Relapses here and there! His left body side is more affected, so his balance is a bit off, some days more then others as well he has tremors in his hands, mainly left, his speech is totally back, he still coughs here and there when drinking but nothing big! We do know his cognitive skills are impaired and partly set back as well as he's showing extreme impulsiveness now and severe Mood swings and has nightmares about the incident and the hospital stay! His seizures are when present a bit stronger (longer staring spells, more exhausting) and he still has some pretty big posturing going on for about 2-3 hours after falling asleep in the evening, but not while being awake! With his therapy we are hopeful to get him maybe all of the way back with only maybe some school problems which can be worked with. Shayden is a miracle and Ryan is still an ongoing miracle by proving every diagnosis step by step wrong, he keeps improving and still beating the odds!

Shayden and his "Battlebuddy" Ryan prior the accident

Shayden in the PICU at TMC Tucson