As told by Danny's father Scott
On a clear night in January 2000, my sons and I were on our way home from dinner when a kid ran a stop sign and hit us. I wasn't injured and David's injuries were luckily mild, but my youngest, Danny, who was eight at the time, was badly hurt. As soon as I saw him, I knew something was terribly wrong. I couldn't tell if he was breathing or not, so I gave him mouth to mouth.
As soon as the ambulance arrived, they rushed him to Wyoming County Community Health System Hospital in Warsaw, NY. But the doctors there weren't equipped to give him the proper medical attention, so they called Mercy Flight to airlift him to Children's Hospital in Buffalo. Skip Yuhnke was the flight medic on the Mercy Flight ship that night and he took care of my son during the flight.
It took me two very long hours to drive to Children's from Warsaw. By the time I got there, Danny was in intensive care. The doctors there told me that they had induced a coma so that his body could focus on healing and that the next 72 hours were the most critical.
I spent day and night at Danny's bedside. After about two and a half weeks, the doctors finally brought him out of the coma, but he stayed in intensive care for a few more days. Then he had to go through six weeks of painful rehab to relearn how to walk and talk.
Skip went above and beyond the call of duty and continued to visit Danny in the hospital throughout this time. I am convinced that if it weren't for Skip Yuhnke and Mercy Flight, my son would not be with us today.
|