Brenden Scott
Sparrow Children's Center
2020 Miracle Child
Brenden's story, (written by his mom, Jennifer)
Brenden has always been a very healthy and active child. he played soccer, basketball, and football. He loved to climb trees, swim, play with his brothers and sisters and ride his bike. He was just your average 9-year-old boy.
Then on December 9, 2018, our lives were turned upside down. It was your typical Sunday afternoon; we returned home from church and decorated their Christmas Tree, and then the kids went upstairs to play. Around 3 pm, I received a text from our neighbor across the street asking if the boys wanted to come over to play. Brenden and his brother Collin were excited to be with their friends and they went over to play. Just a little before 4 pm, Brenden returned home to grab his tablet. While he was upstairs, Richie, Brenden's dad, got home from the store with the youngest son, Nathan, who wanted to go plat at the neighbor's house as well. Brenden was told he had to wait and walk his brother across the street - so he waited outside until Nathan came out. The next thing we know we heard the noise that still causes my heart to stop: the horrible sound of screeching tires. I saw Nathan standing on the side of the road and a huge sigh of relief swept over me - that is until I realized that our Brenden was crumpled up not moving in the middle of the street. All I could think of was that my baby boy was going to die... lying on that cold, hard, road.
When we finally made it to Sparrow, we were met at the doors of the ambulance bay by so many faces and they swept my baby boy away. He was immediately rushed to surgery, during which they found Brenden's liver had been lacerated, as well as severe damage to his heart and lungs. He was also bleeding so badly that he bled out his entire blood volume. At one point, he had no blood left in his body and his heart stopped beating. His heart stopped for over 20 minutes, at which time the cardiologist held my son's heart in his hands and manually pumped it to keep him alive. Brenden had less than a one percent chance of survival. The Trauma Team took him to radiology to put a coil in his liver which finally stopped the bleeding. In all, Brenden had a skull fracture, shattered both jaw joints, spit his top jaw in half, his bottom jaw was shattered into six pieces, he lost three adult front teeth, and severely broke both femurs.
He survived the surgery that night and finally made it to the PICU where he would spend the next 30 days in critical condition. We met some of the most amazing people at Sparrow- without whom our son would not be here. Everyone was very professional, and it was apparent that Brenden's health was their utmost concern. As he progressed, they not only treated his body but they treated him like a child who still needed to act like a child at some points. In all, Brenden ended up having six surgeries to repair his body with two additional surgeries happening in later months to remove hardware from his jaws and legs.
Sparrow caregivers not only took care of Brenden, but they went above and beyond for our entire family. We had wonderful homecooked dinners brought to us from nurses. Since we were spending Christmas in the hospital, they even collected presents for all five of our children. The day Brenden was discharged, so many caregivers came to his room to say goodbye. There were happy tears and a few 'we're going to miss you' tears. However, what was most evident was it was a family gathered there with us- they were no longer strangers who were doing a job, they were our family who was loving us in every way they could.
Brenden entered the ER on December 9th with less than a 1% chance of survival. Thanks to the expertise and love of everyone at Sparrow, he left the PICU on January 8th 100% a 100% miracle.
Brenden has always been a very healthy and active child. he played soccer, basketball, and football. He loved to climb trees, swim, play with his brothers and sisters and ride his bike. He was just your average 9-year-old boy.
Then on December 9, 2018, our lives were turned upside down. It was your typical Sunday afternoon; we returned home from church and decorated their Christmas Tree, and then the kids went upstairs to play. Around 3 pm, I received a text from our neighbor across the street asking if the boys wanted to come over to play. Brenden and his brother Collin were excited to be with their friends and they went over to play. Just a little before 4 pm, Brenden returned home to grab his tablet. While he was upstairs, Richie, Brenden's dad, got home from the store with the youngest son, Nathan, who wanted to go plat at the neighbor's house as well. Brenden was told he had to wait and walk his brother across the street - so he waited outside until Nathan came out. The next thing we know we heard the noise that still causes my heart to stop: the horrible sound of screeching tires. I saw Nathan standing on the side of the road and a huge sigh of relief swept over me - that is until I realized that our Brenden was crumpled up not moving in the middle of the street. All I could think of was that my baby boy was going to die... lying on that cold, hard, road.
When we finally made it to Sparrow, we were met at the doors of the ambulance bay by so many faces and they swept my baby boy away. He was immediately rushed to surgery, during which they found Brenden's liver had been lacerated, as well as severe damage to his heart and lungs. He was also bleeding so badly that he bled out his entire blood volume. At one point, he had no blood left in his body and his heart stopped beating. His heart stopped for over 20 minutes, at which time the cardiologist held my son's heart in his hands and manually pumped it to keep him alive. Brenden had less than a one percent chance of survival. The Trauma Team took him to radiology to put a coil in his liver which finally stopped the bleeding. In all, Brenden had a skull fracture, shattered both jaw joints, spit his top jaw in half, his bottom jaw was shattered into six pieces, he lost three adult front teeth, and severely broke both femurs.
He survived the surgery that night and finally made it to the PICU where he would spend the next 30 days in critical condition. We met some of the most amazing people at Sparrow- without whom our son would not be here. Everyone was very professional, and it was apparent that Brenden's health was their utmost concern. As he progressed, they not only treated his body but they treated him like a child who still needed to act like a child at some points. In all, Brenden ended up having six surgeries to repair his body with two additional surgeries happening in later months to remove hardware from his jaws and legs.
Sparrow caregivers not only took care of Brenden, but they went above and beyond for our entire family. We had wonderful homecooked dinners brought to us from nurses. Since we were spending Christmas in the hospital, they even collected presents for all five of our children. The day Brenden was discharged, so many caregivers came to his room to say goodbye. There were happy tears and a few 'we're going to miss you' tears. However, what was most evident was it was a family gathered there with us- they were no longer strangers who were doing a job, they were our family who was loving us in every way they could.
Brenden entered the ER on December 9th with less than a 1% chance of survival. Thanks to the expertise and love of everyone at Sparrow, he left the PICU on January 8th 100% a 100% miracle.