Stories of Lost Children
Perfect Child
by David W. Reece, US Army, Brussels, , Belgium
On 17 March 2003, my wife was in a car accident with my youngest daughter; she was 6 years old. A van hit them on the driver's side. I was on a mission for the army. Interesting enough it was in Germany to attend a funeral of a retiree who had died about 1 month prior (also to do all the paperwork and provide assistance to the family when a retiree from the military dies). I got a phone call from my commanding officer telling me there was an accident and I needed to return home now. After i got home, I found out my little girl, Damiana, suffered a severe head trauma and was transferred to Brussels, Belgium for additional treatment. At the time, my wife was in a hospital in Mons Belgium (where I lived) in surgery for severe abdominal injuries. After arriving at the hospital in Brussels, i talked to the doctor who told me it was "very very bad" (exact words). He also told me that the frontal part of her brain was non-responsive, but the back part of her brain was still responsive. He told me he was going to run some tests in the morning after the drugs my daughter was given had worn off. When I returned the next day around 2 pm (I spent the night until about 5 in the morning calling family and friends to tell them what happened). The doctor told me that Damiana was brain dead. My wife was transferred to Brussels on the same day as I found out my daughter was brain dead, (different hospital) and she underwent brain surgery for a severe brain hematoma and hemorrhage. My wife was comatose. the doctor in the icu told me it was very, very, bad, but there was hope (notice anything similar about the words?). I had my daughter kept alive on the machines while I figured out a way to get her transferred to be with her mother. This way they could both be together before I had to shut of the machines that were keeping my daughter alive. On Wednesday 19 March 2003, my wife was put into a drug induced coma to relieve the pressure on her brain. We still didn't know if she would come out of her coma. On Friday 21 March 2003, Damiana was transferred from one hospital in Brussels to the one that my wife was at. She was placed in the bed with my wife, and the family gathered together to; well I'm not sure what we did...held hands, said words, and so on... After we were finished and the family had left the room, I told the doctors to "turn off the machines" Damiana became an organ doner and provided a 2 year old boy with her liver, a 6 year old girl with one kidney, a 58 year old man her other kidney, and a 8 year old girl with her heart. I still suffer from the loss of my daughter. I still have my wife but her memory is missing the last year of Damiana's life. I suppose the old adage "time heals all wounds" -- will be found out to be true or false
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