July 5, 2004

He's back to himself

       Sometimes Rhonda Spaulding pauses when she walks by a picture on her living room wall of her three children with bare feet.  Seeing her son, Cameron, sitting on a stool near his two sisters with his chubby toddler feet dangling reminds her of the accident that cost her son his toes.  But she doesn’t let those thoughts linger.  Cameron is alive. He is running and yelling and climbing on his swing set. He races cars across the living room floor and is keeping a fat green garden worm alive by feeding it green tomatoes.  Nearly three months after he was run over by a lawnmower, Cameron is busy doing what 4-year-olds do during the summer.  He played in the water with his classmates on his last day of preschool. He’s been to the Cincinnati Zoo and Kings Island. He hunted and captured cicadas at a church camp-out.  The White River Township boy suffered deep lacerations to his right elbow, thigh and shin, and lost 4½ toes in April when he was struck by the rotating blades of a full-size Craftsman riding mower.  Cameron was playing behind the mower his mom was driving. Not realizing her son was so close, Rhonda put the mower in reverse and backed over Cameron, catching him in the blades and pinning him underneath until rescuers could free him. He was flown by helicopter to Methodist Hospital.  Cameron spent only 10 days in the hospital after the accident, instead of the three weeks doctors originally predicted. He had three surgeries to graft skin and nerves and repair his elbow and foot. He then spent four weeks in casts.  He has been walking for a month now, and warnings from his parents to slow down and be careful aren’t always effective.  “He’s a high-energy boy, and he’s back to himself,” Rhonda said.

 
Trying to be patient

        Waiting to learn the full extent of Cameron’s injuries is now the hardest part for Rhonda and her husband, Gary.  The casts and bandages are off, and Cameron does not have to go through physical therapy. But his right elbow, which still has six screws in it, is not fully functional. His wrist is limp, although he can use his hand to help feed his worm.  Doctors performed surgery on the arm and said it could take as long as six months to find out whether it will improve the movement in Cameron’s arm.  If it doesn’t improve, Cameron could have surgery to transfer tendons from other parts of his body to his arm.  Gary and Rhonda are trying to be patient, but not knowing whether Cameron’s arm will heal enough to allow him to play sports is difficult, they said.  “We were just thankful he was alive, then we were thankful he had an arm and leg,” Gary said. “Now we’re trying not to get impatient waiting to see if (movement in his arm) will come back.”  Monthly doctor’s visits continue to bring good reports. Eventually the screws in Cameron’s elbow will have to be removed, and more skin grafts on the arm may be necessary to keep the scar from pulling on his skin.  As Cameron grows, doctors will monitor the growth plate in his arm and make sure the arm is growing correctly.

 
Talking it out

        Cameron remembers many details from the accident.  He knows the truck he was playing with behind the mower was green, and he remembers that the Lifeline helicopter shook a lot when it took off from his yard.  Just two weeks ago, he asked his mom why her hands had been bloody. He wondered if she had gotten hurt too.  Rhonda and Gary have encouraged Cameron to talk about the accident, how he feels and what’s going on with his body.  Some conversations have been more difficult than others. For instance, Rhonda had to explain to Cameron before he got the cast off his right foot that he wouldn’t have any toes.  He asked why, then said “OK.” That’s been the end of it.  One of their biggest scares as parents was when Cameron wasn’t responding to them in the hospital.  At first they thought the large amount of pain medication was responsible for the fog their son was in.  “He didn’t call us Mom or Dad. He was just in a zone,” Rhonda said.  Doctors ordered tests and couldn’t find anything. Gary and Rhonda once again called on their friends at Mount Pleasant Christian Church to pray for their son.  The night before Cameron was scheduled to come from the hospital — the same night people at Mount Pleasant prayed that he would return to himself — Cameron snapped out of his daze, Gary said.  Rhonda had left the hospital for the fist time to prepare their home for Cameron’s arrival. She answered the ringing phone to hear her son say, “Hi, Mom. You get the van, I’ll be in the wheelchair and let’s go.”  “It might have just been his way of shutting down,” Rhonda said. “But once again prayers were answered.”


Faith and community

        The Spauldings said they can’t imagine going through such an ordeal without the support of their church.  Members of Mount Pleasant brought dinner every night for four weeks. A member of the church who owns a landscaping business mowed the Spauldings’ lawn for six weeks.  Friends from church removed the bloody mower from the yard immediately, fixed it, sold it and pooled some money to buy a new lawnmower for the family.  A large box of cards and letters remind Gary and Rhonda how many people have cared for them over the past three months.  White River Township firefighters stopped by the house recently and let Cameron sit in the fire truck, and two deputies from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office stopped by to check on him.  “These guys have boys. The accident really shook them up,” Rhonda said.  People at the grocery store ask Rhonda if she’s “Cameron’s mom” and tell her they’ve been praying for her.  People Gary has never met at work introduce themselves and tell him his family has been in their prayers.  The Spauldings said their faith was strong before April 15, but God’s care through the people in their church and community and Cameron’s recovery have left them more sure than ever about what they believe.  “Everyone has been so good to us,” Gary said. “We’ve seen God’s hand at work.”  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

 

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