Colton's Story - his sister's perspective

When a child is affected so dramatically by TBI, everyone's lives involved are affected. Everyone's perspective is important to have because we all live with it in our own way.

Colton's Story by his sister, Emily

My little brother was a gorgeous child who came into our lives a little over two years ago. He had a smile and a laugh that stole your heart! Unfortunately in July of 2005 my father was in a severe car accident where he was t-boned, my little brother was in the car that day. Immediately my father and brother were airlifted to our local hospital University Medical Center (UMC) in Tucson, Arizona. At first there were no visible signs of injury to my little brother, but soon enough they realized that this fragile boy might not make it through the night. A piece of glass flew back to where my brother was strapped into his car seat and slit the top of his head. This caused major brain damage in Colton as well as swelling in his brain. The swelling got so bad that they had to remove the left side of the skull to give his brain room. The damage to his brain caused him to go blind and he lost control of the movements in his body (this is cerebral palsy). My brother stayed in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) for three months before they allowed my father to finally take him home.

We were so happy that Colton had survived for as long as he had but knew that there was a long road ahead of us. We took it one day at time and made sure that Colton had a lot of love in his life, and he did! It got hard sometimes because there was so much care involved with a child as sick as Colton, but there were no questions about it and we knew what we had to do.
Colton survived fourteen months after the accident in which he spent a lot of time between home and the hospital. In Colton’s final days we checked him into Tucson Medical Centers (TMC) hospice and waited out the inevitable. He survived a week in hospice before his body finally gave up. My brother was the light in all that was bad, and he gave my family hope and love. The two years we got to spend with Colton were by far the best.

After Colton’s accident my father decided he wanted to help out and start a foundation with the UMC hospital. We are getting on our way and are really excited to help out the families that are going through a lot that we went through. Our goal is to raise five million dollars to ensure that all the families in need are able to get the supplies and proper care that comes along with a brain injured child. We also want to make sure that all the families (with our without a sick child) never leave the hospital without a car seat or without enough gas to make it home. Another thing that we are doing is putting together care packages (which is one of my projects) that include simple baby items such as onesies, receiving blankets, and bath items. We would greatly appreciate your help in this area if at all possible. Through this foundation Colton's life lives on to help other children and their families.