Dr. Kris Deeter, a pediatric intensivist shared, “When we started seeing that little twitch and that little smile come out, we all knew we were good.”
That said, because she had no reflexes or motor movement and she couldn’t talk, they weren’t sure of the degree to which Shaylie would recover.
Spending 3 months in the hospital and then going through Rehab in Los Angeles, Shaylie turned four years old by the time she came home and doctors evaluated her cognitive ability. They found her brain to be at the level of a 5-month-old baby.
“For us to get released from Renown and go home was scary, but such a relief,” Shaylie’s mom shared. “But then the rehabilitation started and it was scary.”
For a year and a half, Shaylie was in rehab five out of seven days of the week and her parents were working with her at home. And even though the 3-year-old was hit by a car and suffered such severed brain injuries, with work, she begain to walk, talk, and eat.
Explaining the therapies, Erica said, “So many steps were involved in doing that. The list is amazingly huge of all the work her therapists did.”
And Erica and her family relied on faith to help them get through it all, calling it her “number one priority.”
“To recognize that and follow it just makes things a lot easier on the day-to-day, because this fight is real,” said Erica.
And today, a little over 3 years later, Shaylie is a Kindergarten graduate. While she’s still in therapy, she continues to improve all the time.
Erica explained, “We are willing to do whatever it takes to get this little girl her life back.”
And Erica believes God has a plan for Shaylie’s future, too. She said, “This kid was just meant to do something amazing.”
