My Little Miracle!

I can attest that miracles do happen! Our family experienced quite a miracle last week. Sydney had a grusome bike accident last Monday afternoon. I am going to proceed and share the story and pictures...

While playing outside with visiting family, Sydney lost balance on her bike (equipped with training wheels) and fell on top of it. At first, it was hard to see if she was injured or not, but I spotted a drop of blood on the sidewalk. I noticed that she had a gash (about 1 in wide) on her neck.

I scooped her up, and immediately put her in the car. Since our family was there to watch the boys, Nick and I took her to the hospital. Surprisingly, this neck wound was barely bleeding.
After and xray, the doctors thought it best to transfer her to Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines (30 miles south). Syd and I traveled in an ambulance down to Des Moines (side note: that ambulance ride ignited a serious case of car sickness for me--no fun)!

Once we got to Children's, there were about 6 doctors and nurses awaiting her arrival. After an exam, a trauma surgeon informed me that Syd needed to have surgery to explore the damage from her "puncture." At this point, I still had no idea how her injury occured. When I called Nick to tell him about the surgery, he told me that after looking more closely at the bike, he saw blood on the bike's brake handle. So, we deduced that the the bike brake puntured her neck! What are the chances?!

The surgery took about an hour, and then the surgeon came to talk to me. He told me that the wound was 7 cm (just under 3 in) deep. And amazingly, it missed every vital thing in her neck! He said she was quite lucky. At this point, I finally realized the gravity of this situation. Sydney, really could have lost her life in this random accident. After a 2 day stay at the Hospital, we were finally able to come home.

Once we were home, she was back to herself--energetic and cheery. The next day, she went back to school. She told me (and I paraphrase): "Mom, everyone wants to see my neck. I think that they like it because it is red."

Yesterday, Sydney and I went back to Des Moines for a follow-up visit. The doctor we saw is the partner of the surgeon who operated on her. He basically told me: how amazing her case was...it seemed impossible that nothing more serious happened to her. He told me that when she came in, his partner called him in to the hospital (he was at a baseball game) to just see it. I guess Sydney's wound was a surgeon's "must-see!" Anyway, he also asked Sydney if she went to Sunday School...she said, yes...he then proceeded to tell her that she should say a prayer to God and tell Him thank you for saving your life! I told the doctor that we have said lots of those already, and plan on saying a lot more too!

We are so lucky to have Sydney in our life! She brings us energy, strength, love, laughter, exuberance, and joy! She really is special...2 miracle in a short lifetime!