Please be patient with this post as I am adding new information and will be posting today's newspaper article as well as a small pic. I will also attempt to correct some misinformation in the article as there is some really poor reporting or poor communication to reporters from the sources quoted. My comments will be in bold.
First, I have no new info on the one's that were taken to the Burn center in Chapel Hill. Attempts to reach the family have been really hard. It seems that when we call the BC that the families are with the children ( as they should be ). I do not leave messages asking for them to return my calls and there are no phones in the patient's rooms ( not that I would dare disturb them at this time ).
We just found out at 4:00 this afternoon that Skye has a broken back and not simply crushed or compacted vertebrae. I do not know the extent or severity of the break. We do not know the course of treatment for this injury as information is "just developing" concerning this newfound injury. I am told that is not at all uncommon to find "new" injuries days after such a severe accident as the swelling begins to subside. I know that this was the case in my own brother's accident years ago so I am not surprised. Also, Skye is really depressed today. I believe that the pain is beginning to take it's toll and along side of the medications ( cocktails of narcotics )she is really having a bad day. She has been told that it is ok to feel sad, to let her nurses know that she hurts. She has been told that it is their JOB to know and that she is not bothering them by crying or saying she hurts. How this child was able to move about immediately after this accident is beyond me. I am simply assuming that sheer adrenaline from fear is what enabled her to do so.
The news article from today's paper is as follows:
Pocketknives used to free children
By Ray Watters, Rocky Mount Telegram
The results of a toxicology report on the driver, Wanda Sue Sanders, 36, could take up to a month or more, said N.C. Highway Patrol officials. Both Sanders and her son, Nicholas Ray Sanders, 12, of Exum Road, Nashville, died in the collision.
Sanders drove a 1986 Chevrolet Nova into a Jeep Cherokee traveling west in the westbound lane. The Jeep burst into flames after the collision.
"There were no skid marks prior to impact," said Sgt. L.C. Harrell. "The (wreck was) almost in the middle between the Red Oak exit and the first Nashville exit."
Someone already had reported that Sanders was driving the wrong way down U.S. 64 West and troopers were on the way to investigate when the wreck happened, Harrell said.
Traffic grounded to a halt for a few hours as emergency personnel tried to deal with the accident and get the injured to the hospital. At least one minor accident was caused by the traffic backup, but no one was hurt, reports said.
The driver of the Jeep, Jennifer Leigh Cone, 29, of Spring Hope, and her two daughters were treated and released from Nash General Hospital in Rocky Mount on Saturday, a hospital spokeswoman said. ( Only the driver was treated and released. The children were released to UNC Burn Center ).
One of the five passengers in the Jeep remains in critical condition at Nash General, said Trooper J.E. Brewer. He did not release the person's name. Brewer said he still was trying to contact Cone and the other Jeep passengers.( None of the patients are at Nash Hospital. Skye is at Pitt Memorial in Greenville in critical condition and at least one of the others, the 7 yo, is in critical condition at UNC ).
"I understand a lot of people helped (the Jeep passengers)," Brewer said. "I didn't witness it myself."
Sgt. Raymond Goodwin, a 24-year veteran of the Nashville Police Department, said he was one of those Good Samaritans.
"I was going back to work from a funeral, travelling west on (U.S.) 64," Goodwin said. "I was about 250 feet behind (the Jeep) when I saw a blue vehicle coming eastbound. It seemed like the white vehicle tried to avoid it, but they hit anyway."
After the collision, Sanders' Chevrolet Nova bounced off the guiderail and came to rest about 15 feet from his car, Goodwin said. He said he radioed for help.
"A woman and a kid jumped out of the Jeep, screaming for help," Goodwin said.
Goodwin said he normally carries a fire extinguisher in his car, but did not have one on Saturday. Other drivers hauling boats got fire extinguishers out of the boats and tried to put out the burning Jeep, he said.
"Finally, we just ran out of fire extinguishers," Goodwin said.
Goodwin said he and at least two others used a pocketknife to cut the seatbelts off the children still in the burning Jeep to get them to safety.
"I've been a police officer for over 30 years, and I'm not going to let a little kid burn up in a car," Goodwin said. "I don't know who those other guys were. If I see them, I'm going to buy them a steak."
If the pic does not show, it can be found along with today's article and the previous day's articles at Rocky Mount Telegram
or
http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/news/
I hope you see your in the right place.
God be with you, your family, and the other families.
Prayer Bump!!!