Three-year-old Nicholas was no stranger to his great aunt’s house; he had stayed there many times before.  On a visit in May 2002, Nicholas was watching cartoons when his great-aunt went to answer a knock at the door.  When she returned, she noticed Nicholas’ shoe on a step by the pool outside.  Then she saw him at the bottom of the blue water.  Her screams alerted a cousin and a neighbor that something was wrong.  The cousin pulled him from the pool, but they were unable to detect a pulse.  The neighbor started CPR.  Soon, police, firefighters, and an ambulance arrived. 

Nicholas was taken to the Greenville Hospital System (GHS) Children’s Emergency Center, the Upstate's only 24 hour emergency room dedicated to children.  Upon arrival, his pupils were fixed and dilated, an indication of brain death.  A team of doctors and nurses immediately went to work, and Nicholas began to breathe again.  But they were far from done.

 

After four weeks in the GHS Children’s Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and another month at Roger C. Peace Hospital-Rehabilitation, Nicholas was crawling and ready to go home.  In the months since, he has received physical, speech, and occupational therapies through Kidnetics, an outpatient program of Children’s Hospital.  With this help, Nicholas has re-learned many of the basic skills he had developed before the accident.  Now he is growing and progressing with an optimistic prognosis.

 

With your support, Children’s Hospital can make more miracles like this happen.  Thank you!