Katelynn of Wakefield High- MIRACLE

Katelynn Konik, 14 year old student at Wakefield Highschool, was riding to school with a friend on Thursday morning ( Sept.14th) when she was involved in a terrible accident.  She was immediately transported to Duke Hospital in Durham and has put up the fight of her life!  When she arrived she was continuing to decline and they discovered she was bleeding out internally and they rushed her into emergency surgery where a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Tracy,  spent hours locating and suturing all her bleeds.  During this process she was given 25 liters of blood.  Basically she was internally bleeding out as fast as they were putting it in.  They discovered that the impact to her was so hard it had caused her kidney to twist and tear from the arteries. The kidney could not be saved so it was removed. Would the other kidney be able to compensate? Would her body reject the donated blood? (None of her own blood was now in her body.) Sometime between the arrival to the ER and the completion of surgery she had to be resuscitated; but the time is unclear to me right now.  When she came out of surgery she was placed in Pediatric ICU (PICU).  The surgeons talked with us and actually were amazed that she had made it this far.  They had not expected that she would, given her condition and blood loss. At this point they had only taken care of her emergent injury to save her life.  If she made it through the night they would then address her other injuries; (shattered pelvis, broken hips, broken leg, broken ribs and concussion).  She did make it through the night but the doctors were still reserved on her condition.  They would not tell us she was out of the woods until much, much later.  She had three surgeries in four days.  The first surgery was the one I described previously. The second surgery was to repair her shattered pelvis,  broken leg, and broken hips.  Her pelvis now has two plates and an external fixation device which now holds her pelvis in place. A rod was placed in her broken leg and pins on both hips. The third surgery was to check her organ functions and to close her back up from the first surgery.  The next day they finally told us she was out of the woods!  Praise GOD!  Her mother had been asking the doctors daily and finally she heard those sweet words from them. Katelynn is still in the hospital but has been moved out of PICU and into the pediatric wing. Right now she is battling the pain.  The doctors are still working on the right combination of pain meds to keep her somewhat comfortable, as well as helping her deal with what has happened to her. Katelynn has a LONG, hard and PAINFUL recovery before she can walk again. She is going to need a lot of special equipment to help assist her mother to care for her once they are cleared to go home. ( Because of the cap on the insurance, she is being forced home sooner than exspected.) She will need a special wheelchair that keeps her at a 30 degree angle and holds her legs up, because she is not able to bear any weight on her legs for at least 6 weeks.  She also will require a hospital bed that has a bar above so she can keep up the strength in her arms and readjust herself in bed.  This bed will be her home until the final surgery to remove the external fixation device attached to her pervis.  ALL PROCEEDS will go to Katelynn Konik and her care. Katelynn has to be lifted by multiple people and is in need of a live in nurse. A portion of the funds are to pay for in home medical care, physical therepy, and possibly a personal tudor so that she does not get behind on her school work. One of the first things that concerned her was missing school.  She cried  while saying that she could not fail her first year in high school.  We assured her that would not happen; provisions would be made. This desire now also is coming from the fact that she wants to become a nurse, (or doctor).  She's already decided she will work at Duke to repay them for saving her life. If you can help with any financial assistance you can give, we would be greatly appreciative. If you are not able to donate Katelynn asks everyone if they will just pray for her. Please pray God give her the strenth to make it through each day. She also asks that everyone always remember to wear their seatbelt, because it SAVED HER LIFE!!