The Domi Llama Fund
Donation protected
Friends and relatives have been asking how they can help out. Many have suggested we start a GoFundMe for things like fuel, parking, and anything Dom may need while we are not working.
A little about us:
Alissa and I work together for a small pavement maintenance company where the two of us make up one of two crews total. Alissa drives the truck and does the actual sealcoating/ line striping etc. I assist her with whatever needs to be done. One of us can't really work without the other. That's been the biggest challenge financially. Even after Dominic's surgery to put his bone flap in, he will still require outpatient therapy 3x a week and someone to be with him during the day for an unforeseen amount of time.
Our work is seasonal and we are coming very close to the end of the season, usually mid November. Right now it's "busy" season. Usually we'd be putting away most of what we make to cushion us through winter. During the off season I do deliveries through Grubhub and Alissa takes whatever odd job is available.
We are very fortunate to have a job where we can take whatever time we need though. And our boss, Mike, loves Dom like a grandson.
A little about where we live:
We moved to Athol this past May. We have been living in our camper in the driveway as we did renovations to the house all while working full time. Dominic's room in the house is finished and ready for furniture so that will be one of the things we use the donations for. A mattress, dresser, rug etc. We want to set his room in the house up so that whomever stays with him during the day, doesn't need to stay in the camper with our 4 dogs and no space!
The house is very small too, but you'll have the use of the kitchen and living room, and of course Dom would be able to lay down and be comfy in his room. We are still sleeping in the camper right now so Dom of course will be sleeping in the camper with us at night.
Things your donations are going to:
• Fuel! In just the first week we spent almost $800 in fuel & parking going back and forth to Boston.
• A small amout towards our monthly bills as we've been out of work for 3 weeks.
• Special things Dom needs once home, a bed rail so there's no chance he falls out of bed etc.
• A mattress and furniture for Doms room in the house (explained above)
• Homeschooling supplies that we'll need until Dominic transitions back into school.
• Other things Dominic may need as we continue on his path to recovery!
* We would also like to raise enough for an aucustic/electric guitar for Dom. He has an acoustic that he plays every day and he is extremely talented! He has been asking for awhile now and we'd really like to surprise him with one when he completes rehab.
***Another way you can really help is by spending the day with him!
Even after Dominic's surgery he'll need to be with someone all the time for awhile so if anyone wants to spend the day with Dom so that we can work, please let us know!
Many of you already know Dom's story, but I'm going to post my "blog" for those who don't.
[9/3]
Sunday
September 3rd, Dominic was in a skateboarding accident. He was going to an apple orchard with a friend, he had his skateboard, she had her bike. They walked up High Street in Ayer just to go down it (perhaps to impress a girl ;)? From his own account, he was doing ok even as he picked up speed. He was almost to the bottom of the hill when his board started to get "speed wobble", he lost control and fell forward smacking the left side of his head off the pavement. I received a call as I was leaving the house around noon. An Ayer police officer informed me that Dom had had an accident on his skateboard and that he was currently on a life-flight to Boston. I started driving right away, dave was able to watch the tracker on Doms phone so we could see where he was in the air. I honestly thought that Dom was ok. We all know that Dominic is no stranger to injury! I thought that he'd get a few staples. Maybe spend a few hours in the hospital so they could watch for concussion, and then we'd take him home. I was not prepared when we finally made it to Mass General and the the E.R. receptionist told us that Dominic was in surgery!!! And that's all she could tell us! It was the worst feeling I'd ever had to not know anything about what was happening to my boy.
Thankfully not too much time passed when a Doctor from his "team" and a Social Worker came and took Dave and I into a room to tell us what had happened. All they knew at the time was that Dom had hit his head falling off his skateboard and was puking and passing out so they brought him to Boston. When he arrived they got him straight in for a ct-scan and saw a massive bleed in his brain. They rushed him into the O.R and were working to decompress him.
Mike was already there and my mother, and Ron showed up shortly after. We waited maybe a half hour or so before surgeons came out. They showed us his scan. The top view image looking down showed how big the bleed/clot was, took up almost 1/3 of the image of his brain! They explained that they performed an "Emergency Decompressive Crainectomy", essentially removing a piece of skull in order to remove the the clot and decompress his brain. They told us that it was only about 12 minutes from when they saw the bleed in CT to when they were able to decompress him in surgery. That's lightning fast! I'm so thankful that he was transported to the #1 Hospital in New England! He had a rockstar surgery team! After his surgery he was kept in a medical coma and on a breathing tube. Later the same night they backed off his sedation meds to see if he'd wake but it was too soon.
[9/4]
Monday
That morning they tried again, he woke and was able to follow commands like thumbs up and squeezing his hand. They took out his breathing tube and he was able to speak although he was confused and having trouble finding words (Aphasia).
[9/5]
Tuesday
He was much more alert and less confused. He was able to sit up on his own and could move his arms, legs, and fingers. His eyes were fine although his left eye was now swollen shut from the swelling in his head. He had also suffered a fractured shoulder, and mild road rash. He could speak in mostly coherent sentences, but was suffering from Aphasia. Which is very common in people with injuries to that side of the brain and it typically improves when the swelling goes down.
[9/6]
Wednesday
3 days after his injury, they had him up and walking! His team was incredibly impressed with the speed of his recovery so far. One of his nurses said that she's never seen anyone with this type of injury do so well so fast. Alot of it is due to the remarkable speed in which he was transported and decompressed.
[Still 9/6]
Before leaving for the hospital on Wednesday morning, I received a call from the Ayer police officer who had responded to the 911 call. He was calling because everyone was worried and wondering how Dom was doing (small towns ❤️). At that point we still really didn't know much about what had happened and who called 911. That's when he told me something unbelievable.
Dominic fell in the road right in front of someones driveway. A woman had just pulled into that driveway, she was from out of town visiting family for the holiday weekend and saw the whole thing happen.
That woman was an E.R. NURSE.
She took action right away, immediately calling 911. She kept him still and gave him water. While on the phone with 911 she assessed his condition and saw the seriousness of his injury. She told them who she was and that they would need a helicopter for him to get to a more equipped hospital. The helicopter was waiting for him when the ambulance got to Nashoba. Because she was there, valuable time was saved that was critical to his survival. Someone who didn't know better could have waited to call 911, or not called at all. I asked the officer if he'd give me her contact information, if that was ok with her. He said he ask her but I never heard back. I'm assuming she didn't want a fuss, but I'd very much like to thank that woman for being there and saving my son's life.
Below is a timeline of events. The times are accurate and are from the reports and my phone call log.
• 11:40 - Officer Pearson said he received 911 call.
• 12:00- Officer calls me to tell me that Dom is airborne to Boston
• 1:02 - Mass General calls me (still driving) Dom is In ct-scan.
• 1:12 - Surgeons have him decompressed in O.R.
That's approximately 1 1/2 hours from injury to decompression. Thank you to every single person involved in getting him where he needed to be!
[9/7]
Thursday
Thursday night was his last night in the P.I.C.U! (That's the Pediatric ICU). He was flirting with all the young pretty nurses and cracking everyone up with his one-liners!
[9/8-9/10]
Friday-Sunday
They moved Dom to "the floor" on which is the regular pediatric floor. Every day that passed he got better and had less I.V.s and more freedom. He has to wear a helmet of course anytime he's out of bed and be within an arms reach of someone until his bone flap goes back in. They told us that he should be clear to go to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital possibly on Wednesday the 13th! Before I left Monday night to go home I told him that I'd be a little late in the morning, probably around noon. I asked him what kind of food or treats I should bring him. He wanted Takis and Fried Rice lol.
[9/11]
Monday
I talked to Dom just after 11:00 and told him that I'd be on my way soon. I had to stop to get his fried rice and Takis!
I was at CVS around noon when a Doctor from Mass General called. Dominic was having a seizure. It had already been going on for about 20 minutes. I dropped everything on the floor in CVS and rushed to Boston.
They told me that not too long after I had talked to him on the phone, his nurses had gone into his room to check on him and noticed that his lips were moving weird and that his speech was repetitive. They got a team there quickly, there were about 20 people in his room. He didn't have an IV anymore and it was incredibly difficult to get one on him, they finally did and were able to stop the seizure with meds, but it lasted almost AN HOUR.
They sedated and intubated him, got a ct-scan and moved him to the P.I.C.U. where he was hooked up to an EEG and monitored closely to ensure no further seizures occurred.
Dave, myself, my mother, and Ron were brought in to see him. Dom really scared the crap out of all of us because he started shaking and gagging and convulsing! They gave him a load dose of seizure meds and it happened a few more times later on before we noticed that the shaking was similar to the way he was the first time he was sedated on a breathing tube. Turns out that those weren't seizures at all! It was just Dom waking slightly out of sedation! They confirmed the next day that this weren't seizures but WOW did he have us freaking out!
Because of the type of seizure and the fact that his skull flap is still off, they said chances were good that he wouldn't suffer any damage to his brain but we didn't know, and wouldn't know for sure until they woke him up. His scans looked good, there were no new bleeds or clots or anything that would cause this to happen. While speaking with the team someone mentioned that his Keppra (anti-seizure med) was stopped days before. I corrected them as I watched him take it at 8:30 the previous night. It's liquid, it tastes horrible, and i always hand Dom something to chase it down with. They checked and confirmed that he was in fact still taking it BUT HAD MISSED his 8AM dose. They say it was supposed to be stopped and that no one messed up, Dave and I are still investigating that.
[9/12]
Tuesday
Dom showed NO additional seizures on the EEG overnight so he only suffered the one initial one. Dom woke through the sedation a couple times throughout the night and was able to follow commands. They took him off sedation this afternoon and removed his breathing tube with no complications. He does have a low fever. He will be out of it for awhile from the sedation drugs and he'll be extremely tired so he'll rest here in P.I.C.U. tonight. Although his voice is very hoarse from the breathing tube, Dom was able to say a few things right away. One thing was, "my throat hurts....bad" and also started describing the beginning of the seizure (which they said he wouldn't remember). He still needs a neuro exam to check that nothing was affected by the seizure but hopefully once the sedation meds wear fully off and he's rested I'll at least be able to tell if he's where he was at before this all happened. All in all, FANTASTIC NEWS!
[9/13]
Wednesday
Overnight he woke several times and kept asking what happened. He asked several times why he died, and insisted that he did. He also said some really funny stuff in his sleep. He would wake up and go, "MA!" and I'd say, "what's up baby?" And one time he said, "Muffin!" I said, "i don't think you can have a muffin right now-" and he cut me off and yelled, "MUFFIN!!!" I said, "ok, I'll get you a muffin", and he fell back asleep. At rounds this morning with the team of Doctors they said Dom had a "post-traumatic epileptic focal seizure" that lasted almost an HOUR before they got it under control. This type of seizure is very common with TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) and "focal" just means that it's one spot of the brain vs one side or both sides. His doctors were pretty impressed by his recovery from that seizure and he even remembered everything that happened in the beginning. After the sedation fog wore off over the course of the night Dom became more aware and talkative. He was up and walking by morning and cleared to move back to "the floor"! The boy is a miracle!
[9/14]
Thursday
Back on "the floor" and feeling better every day. Before the seizure he had weakness and dexterity issues in his right hand, today, his hand is strong and back to normal! The brain is a crazy thing.
[9/15-9/18]
Friday-Monday
Dom is cleared to go to Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital here in Boston! Now it's just waiting for a bed to open up...
[9/19]
Tuesday
We got a bed! Dom was transported via ambulance 1.4 miles down the road to Spaulding in Charlestown. I stayed with him that first night, wow what a gorgeous place! He's got a private room and bathroom and a million dollar view of the river going out into the ocean and a bit of downtown and the airport! It almost makes you forget you're in a hospital! Spaulding is the #1 rehab in New England and it's #2 in the entire COUNTRY! Our boy is in good hands! Tomorrow they evaluate him.
[9/20]
Wednesday
Dom is MUCH happier here. We went to his evaluations with him in the morning. First was Physical Therapy where they say he is fantastic and may only need a little work on balance as he's been in a hospital bed for over 2 weeks. Occupational Therapy also said that he's great and may only need to work on a few small things, mostly to do with while his skull flap is still out. Speech Therapy is where he needs the most work as he still suffers from Aphasia especially with the written word. They will get together over the next day or so and decide how long he'll need there. His surgery to put his skull flap back in is scheduled for October 4th. So hopefully they will keep him until then. I want him to come home but not without his head back together, we're all to clumsy!
Organizer
David Marple
Organizer
Athol, MA