Pray For Brayden: Near drowning awareness

Monday, January 5, 2009

Brayden suffered a near drowning on April 12, 2008. He was 16 months old. This is the beginning of of his journey:

Brayden was playing in the backyard with his sister Kaitlyn, they were jumping on the trampoline while I was cooking out on the grill. I went inside to take the food in and set the table so we could eat. When my daughter came in the front door, I immediately said, where is your brother? She said she didn't know we both ran out the back door. I scanned the backyard screaming his name. I asked Katilyn where is he at, she said I dont know maybe he fell in the pool. I looked in the pool I couldnt see anything at first the water was dark green and coated with a thick layer of pollen. Then on the other side of the pool, I saw his little blue and orange tennis shoes. He was floating face down in the water. I immediately ran to the other side of the pool and pulled him out. He was not breathing, I threw him over my shoulder and ran to the deck where CPR was started. My daughter ran inside to get the phone so I could call 911.

When EMS arrived he was still in full cardiac arrest. The EMS took him inside the ambluance to work on him and someone came out and told us that things did not look good for him. EMS continued CPR and after giving him Epi/Atropine his pulse finally returned they had a heartbeat of 38. He was intubated by EMS due to still not breathing and once stablized enough for flight he was flown to Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. He had to be given more cpr and epi/atropine 2 times en route to the hospital due to his heartrate dropping really low. When he arrived at the hospital he was put on a ventilator and his body temperature was 80.06 F, he was cold, pale and unresponsive. He was admitted to the PICU for further care.

He had 2 CT scans done 1 of which showed a very mild disturbance of gray matter-white matter differentiation. His MRI showed that he had hypoxic ischemic brain injury due to his lack of oxygen. The doctors could not give us a prognosis for him. All we could do now was to wait on him to wake up to determine the extent of his brain injury. Brayden remained on the ventilator until April 16th, he was taken off of the ventilator and put on oxygen by nasal cannula. He started having respiratory distress and was given racepinephrine treatments and started on methadone for possible withdrawl symptoms from the sedation used while he was intubated. He was started on a high flow oxygen by nasal cannula. He did well and was being weaned down on his oxygen. Sometime during all of this they thought he possibly had a seizure and they started him on Keppra to prevent seizures. On April 22 he started having respiratory distress again, work of breathing, increased heart rate, and blood pressure. On April 23 he was re-intubated and put back on the ventilator. On April 27 he was taken back off of the ventilator and tried again on the nasal cannula. He did well for the first day but that night he took a turn for the worse and almost had to be reintubated again.On April 28th, after talking with Brayden's doctors the decision to put in a tracheostomy was made. A PEG tube for feedings was also done at the same time. It was found that Brayden had acute inflammation with swelling of his sub-glottis area and active granulation tissue partially occluding the subglottis most likely due to being intubated several times. We pray for healing of little Brayden and now our journey of healing begins.

Brayden's Diagnoses:
Near drowning/Accidental drowning
Anoxic Encephalopathy
Generalized-onset seizures
Acute Respiratory failure
Cortical Visual Impairment
Quadraplegia
Hypertonia
Post encephalopathy cognitive disorder
Surgeries: tracheostomy and G-tube

Newspaper Article

North Georgia family seeks help after tragedy

A busy mother of three was grilling out last spring and left her children outside for a moment while she set the dinner table. Shannon Jacobs never imagined what would happen in that few moments that she left 16-month-old Brayden and five-year-old Kaitlyn playing on the trampoline that cold April evening.
Her first realization that something was wrong came when Kaitlyn returned into the house unaccompanied.
“Where’s Brayden?,” she asked Kaitlyn.
Kaitlyn didn’t know were her younger brother was.
Jacobs began to call for the toddler and call his name and was greeted with no answer. She searched the back yard and spotted him floating face down in the family pool.
Her training as a nurse kicked in as she pulled the limp and lifeless body from the pool. He wasn’t breathing and his heart had stopped. She called 9-11 and began CPR.
Minutes later when an ambulance arrived, Brayden still had no heartbeat. At that moment the family had little hope that Brayden would survive.
The Emergency Medical Technicians were able to get Brayden’s heart beating again and the toddler was airlifted from Manning Mill Park to Children’s Health Care of Atlanta where he would spend the next month and a half.
The family’s celebration of life was shortened when they realized that Brayden had suffered traumatic brain injuries due to his lack of oxygen. He had lost the ability to move unassisted, talk, see and eat.
While he was in the hospital, doctors fitted him with a tracheotomy and a gastric feeding tube.
The family has since learned of a new technique that might help Brayden recover some of what he lost.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy has helped to improve the quality of life of many near-drowning victims like Brayden. The technique works by saturating the body’s cells and body fluids with oxygen. This then stimulates dormant neurons to begin to work once more.
Unfortunately, the therapy is not covered by the family’s insurance and is very expensive.
Brayden’s grandparents, Steve and Patti Collins of Ringgold, Ga., were able to pay for the first round of treatments. With these first few sessions, Brayden has shown improvement and can now hold his head up on his own.
The family is now seeking help from the community for future treatments because the cost of Brayden’s continued care has left the family unable to afford further treatments.
The family will be holding several fund raising events and ask anyone who can to please participate in the events or to donate. But most of all, they ask that you pray for Braden.
For more information on how to donate or planned events visit his website at http://prayforbrayden.blogspot.com/ or mail Shannon Jacobs\Benefit for Brayden Jacobs; Northside Bank; P.O. Box 283; Adairsville, GA 30103; #770-773-7300.

Drowning Information

Frequency:
In the US: Drowning deaths number more than 6500 per year. A bimodal distribution of deaths is observed, with an initial peak in the toddler age group and a second peak in adolescent to young adult males. Despite preventive measures, drowning is second only to motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) as the most common cause of injury and death in children aged 1 month to 14 years. Morbidity from submersion occurs in 12-27% of survivors in this age group. Preschool-aged boys are at greatest risk of submersion injury. A survey of 9420 primary school children in South Carolina estimated that approximately 10% of children younger than 5 years had an experience judged a "serious threat" of near drowning. Residential swimming pools are the most common submersion site in this age group. Submersion-related injuries are the fifth leading cause of accidental death in the US in all age groups; incidence is approximately 2.5-3.5 per 100,000 population. California reports approximately 25,000 ocean rescues on its beaches each year. True incidence of near drowning has yet to be defined accurately, however, since many cases are not reported.

Gender:
Male-to-female ratios are approximately 12:1 for boat-related drownings and 5:1 for non–boat-related drownings. Only in bathtub incidents do girls predominate in incidence.

Age:
Peak incidences of submersion injury occur in the following 2 age groups:--Children younger than 4 years--Young adults aged 15-24 years

History:
Typical incidents involve a toddler left unattended temporarily or under the supervision of an older sibling, an adolescent found floating in the water, or a victim diving and not resurfacing. The submersion time, water temperature, water tonicity, symptoms, associated injuries (especially cervical spine and head), type of rescue, and response to initial resuscitation are all relevant factors.

Causes:
Bathtub drowning is most common in children younger than 1 year. A majority of these victims drown during a brief (<5>) lapse in adult supervision.
In preschool-aged children, drownings occur most commonly to residential swimming pools. Many residential pools have no physical barrier between the pool and the home.Open gates are involved in up to 70% of drownings in cases involving fenced-in pools.Young adults typically drown in ponds, lakes, rivers, and oceans.Cervical spine injuries and head trauma, which result from diving into water that may be shallow or contain rocks and other hazards, have been implicated.Alcohol and, to a lesser extent, other recreational drugs are implicated in many cases. Australian, Scottish, and Canadian data showed that 30-50% of older adolescents and adults who drowned in boating incidents were inebriated, as determined by blood alcohol concentrations.

Deterrence/Prevention:
Children, especially toddlers, should be supervised at all times when they are around water, including a bathtub or bucket full of water.All pools should be fenced appropriately, with the gate to the area locked when not in use under adult supervision. Parents who own pools or who take their children to pools are encouraged to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).All individuals involved in boating should be able to swim, should use personal flotation devices when on the boat or in the water, and should avoid the use of alcohol or other recreational drugs. Boaters should be taught to anticipate wind, waves, and water temperature, and to use protective suits and other insulating garments in cold weather.All children should be taught to check the water carefully for depth and possible injurious objects before diving in. Children also should be taught their swimming limitations and to not play dangerously in pools or on the decks surrounding pools.All individuals should be taught not to drink alcohol or use other recreational drugs when swimming.Individuals with underlying medical illnesses that may place them at risk when swimming, such as seizure disorders, diabetes mellitus, significant coronary artery disease, severe arthritis, and disorders of neuromuscular function, should swim under the observation of another adult who can rescue them should they get into trouble.Information about near-drowning taken from http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic744.htm
Copyright © 2007 Peggy Hostetler. All Rights Reserved

Monday, January 5, 2009

Near drowning awareness

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