Their daughter was late getting home from work. The doorbell rang and on her way to answer the door, Alesha Gave saw the squad car in the driveway. “I knew it was bad,” Alesha said.
“It’s every parent’s worst dream,” her husband Dana added.
Their 19-year-old daughter Jordan had been in a car accident. That was all they knew as they made their way to St. Cloud Hospital. They didn’t know how badly she’d been hurt or if she was even alive.
Jordan was alive, but she had a broken pelvis, a broken left ankle, her lungs were collapsed and she had a brain injury.
Jordie, as her family calls her, had been on her way home from Family Dollar in Big Lake around 3:15 p.m. on Jan. 25. She took County Road 5 but doesn’t remember much beyond that.
It was dusk, snow was blowing and Jordan wasn’t familiar with the road.
According to her family, a vehicle was stopped at the intersection and Jordan swerved around it and ended up going through the stop sign, crashing into a vehicle that was on County Road 3.
“We’re assuming that she didn’t even see the other car that hit her,” Dana said.
The 2009 Milaca High School graduate was airlifted to St. Cloud Hospital where her family waited and wondered what would become of Jordan’s brain injury.
“I remember bits and pieces of the last week,” Jordan said of her three-week hospital stay. “But, nothing’s come back so far.”
Jordan didn’t speak at all that first week in ICU, primarily because she was in an induced coma. But doctors said she may never speak again.
“It was scary not knowing exactly how much of her we’d get back,” Alesha said.
Thankfully, today Jordan is walking and talking, but things have changed.
The teenager will need some more neurological testing to determine her learning ability.
She has some memory loss. For instance, her boyfriend, Derek Gregorich, and her watched a movie recently that they had seen before. But she has no recollection of having seen it.
“I tried to explain that she’d seen it before, but she couldn’t put it together,” Gregorich said.
“She’s had problems finding the words,” Alesha said of her daughter.
Even Jordan sees some of the changes in her, thanks to a journal she kept.
“I was a mean girl,” she said referring to the words she had written. “What was I thinking?”
After living in sweatpants and pajamas for the past three months, her first thought when she put her regular clothes on was, “Why is everything so tight?” Jordan’s dressing a little differently these days.
And she’s learned from others that she is more confident now and more comfortable with herself.
“She’s less moody,” her mother pointed out.
And there are some odd things, like the fact that she’s now afraid of bugs and she no longer enjoys chocolate.
“That’s when you know you’ve been hit on the head!” her dad jokes of a woman not liking chocolate.
But Mom says her daughter is definitely different than she was before the accident.
“She used to hide in her room,” Alesha said.
“She’s more outgoing,” Dana added.
“I’m not afraid to ask questions if I don’t understand something,” Jordan chimed in.
Jordan’s reaction time, cognitive thinking and problem solving skills are all worked on in occupational therapy.
“I don’t feel any different - brain-wise,” Jordan said.
The teen still likes to keep things clean and be organized.
“I haven’t seen you do the dishes yet,” Dana poked at his daughter. “Can you get that skill back?
One of the first foods the hospital staff gave Jordan was apple sauce.
“Yuck, that’s disgusting,” was her response.
“That’s when we knew she was still there,” Dana said. “There’s a big chunk of her that’s still her.”
While Jordan was in the hospital, she didn’t really understand why she was there. She’d tell people she had a broken ankle, which she could see, but would forget to mention the much more serious brain injury.
“She said it felt like it happened to someone else,” Alesha said. And though she had seen pictures of her Saturn, it wasn’t until she saw it in person that things really sank in for her.
Despite all the red tape with insurance, hospital bills and accident reports, the hardest part for Jordan’s parents is the “not knowing.”
“It could take up to a year for us to know where she’s at,” Alesha said.
Traumatic brain injury
With traumatic brain injuries (TBI), the injured can experience severe headaches, repeated vomiting or nausea, convulsions or seizures, an inability to awaken from sleep, dilation of one or both pupils of the eyes, slurred speech, weakness or numbness in the extremities, loss of coordination, and increased confusion, restlessness, or agitation.
Jordan seems to be one of the lucky ones and not only is she not angry about what’s happened to her, she’s kept a good sense of humor and a positive attitude, despite the mounting hospital bills for the girl who has no insurance.
“Physically, nothing’s hard,” Jordan, the petite teen, said of remembering how to walk. “But mentally, I take things harder than before.”
Yet, the only time she broke down, she said, was when the doctors told her she needs to take an IQ test.
A smart girl who graduated in the top 30, Jordan is concerned about the test, which she’ll have to take next month to determine if she has any permanent disability and if she’ll be able to attend college.
She also feels bad for what her parents have gone through and the financial difficulties for the family (Dana works at Woodcraft, Alesha is unemployed, and doctors won’t allow Jordan to return to work or drive yet).
“That’s okay, we’ve got you here,” Alesha reassured her daughter.
The tragic accident made everyone in the family realize how important family and friends are.
“Our family is closer than what I thought,” Dana, a former Foreston fire fighter, said. “We found out we have a lot of community support.”
That support will also come in the form of a benefit for Jordan on Saturday, May 8 at 5:30 p.m. at the Milaca Legion, which includes a spaghetti dinner, silent auction and bake sale.
Two days after the benefit, Jordan’s scheduled to have the remaining pieces of glass removed that are embedded in her lip and chin.
As for the Harry Potter-like scar on her forehead, she’s not sure if she’ll have plastic surgery or if she’ll keep it as a reminder.
Jordan’s aunt, Tracie Gave, sent Jordan a message on her CaringBridge site that said, “A very good friend of mine was in a bad car accident a few years ago and said she used to hate to have her picture taken-always worried about how her hair looked, or her clothes, or her weight. Now she says God gave her another chance to make those memories with her family so she’s in the pictures all the time!”
Jordan has two older sisters, Kim (26) and Amber (22). When the family gathers for Kim’s wedding later this year, it’s likely they’ll all be smiling in the photos - thankful that Jordan is with them.
“I’m alive and can only get better,” Jordan said.
No comments:
Post a Comment