On Thursday July 2nd, Christopher was involved in a freak accident when he fell while walking on a treadmill at a friend’s house. As he was falling, he reached up to grab something to hold on to, and inadvertently grabbed the knob which controls the speed, turning the treadmill to the highest speed setting. Due to the location of the treadmill, as he was shot off the back of the belt, he was launched into a wall, where he was wedged between the wall and the treadmill belt. Sarah, along with other parents, were thankfully inside and responded within 30 seconds of hearing the commotion. Unfortunately in that short period of time, his body sustained significant full thickness, 3rd degreed burns along the right side of his body from the belt running at full speed against his skin.

He was immediately taken to a local hospital and from there transported to a pediatric trauma center to be treated. He underwent immediate burn debridement surgery late Thursday night/ early Friday morning.

On Tuesday he had his first bandage change. Without being put under, they removed all of his surgery bandages that were glued to him. Sarah said it was hands down the worst experience of her life to witness him be in so much pain. Christopher was the toughest boy though and handled it like a champ. Their assessment was that his minor burns are healing beautifully and can be downgrade to home care but his elbow remains 2nd degree and his thigh was upgraded to a 3rd degree. They contacted the plastics team and scheduled a follow up surgery on Thursday under full anesthesia.

Thursdays surgery was met with mixed reviews. Once they got in there and got cleaning the wounds, it turns out both are full thickness wounds (3 degree). They put tissue dissolving meds on his leg wound because that one is pretty deep and they couldn’t get all the dead stuff out. They put that ointment on and they will try again on Monday. The goal is to scrape it clean of dead tissue so that the body can get those granulation cells in there and rebuild his skin layers.

On Monday he will have another debridement surgery. If the tissue dissolving and additional debridement doesn’t work then they will discuss other surgical options such as grafts. The biggest risk right now is infection. The doctors have confirmed that an infection with this severe of burns would go straight to his blood stream and is life threatening. Sarah is doing an awesome job of caring for him and treating his wounds but he’s still a 9 year old stinky little boy, in the thick of a Texas summer, who now has to sit still and heal.

As you can imagine, this is financially draining, even with insurance. So far they have paid thousands of dollars just to be seen the first night in the OR. That doesn’t include emergency transport services, any surgical fees, drs, fees. Etc. As well as the unknown fees that are still to come. As a teacher, Sarah only gets a handful of days off each year and we are expecting the follow up care to continue well into the school year. This will add additional burden on top of increasing medical bills. Our families will continue to give Christopher the best care possible in hopes that he can fully heal and this accident becomes a distant memory. We would love to help lessen the financial burden for them as much as possible and all donations will go directly to a fund for medical bills.

In addition to financial support, prayers are always appreciated. Pray for comfort for Christopher. Pray for healing and a successful surgery on Monday. Pray for Chris and Sarah who are having to witness their child in unimaginable pain while unable to take the pain away for him. Pray for Alpha who is the best big brother in the world and is doing everything to support his parents and his brother through this with a smile on his face.

We love you Christopher!