A Winding Road to Recovery

By Brooke Abel

Life takes unexpected turns. Some of these turns are for the best and others are for the worst. How you handle these ups and downs determines the kind of person you are. For senior Sabrina Field-Pirotte, she took her worst turn and made it into energy to become a stronger person.

On Monday July 1, Sabrina Field-Pirotte was having a normal day and was about to head into work. Her son, Jonathan, her sister, Kyra, and her mother, Brandy, all hopped into their van to go on what they thought would be a normal drive to Sabrina’s work. Although no one is sure how exactly it happened, Sabrina, her family, and a semi collided into one another.

“When it happened at first, I was just trying to figure out what happened. I remember hearing the sirens. I also remember seeing them swerving around other cars just to get to us. I could smell burning rubber and the burning metal. I could hear the metal crunching, the sirens going, and the EMT trying frantically to get to us. I could taste the blood in my mouth. I kept touching the oxygen mask trying to get it off of me,” Pirotte said about her first reactions to the wreck.

Jonathan was the first to get out of the car and was rushed to Children’s Mercy in Kansas City. Her little sister and mother were taken on an ambulance. For some miraculous reason, Kyra was unharmed and Brandy had to get a few stitches in her left elbow. Sabrina was flown to Kearney, Nebraska after they cut her out of the van. There they found that they would not be able to properly take care of her, so she was flown back out to KU Medical Center.

At KU Med, she stayed in the ICU for a few days. There she was taken to surgery for her first surgery on her arm. Sabrina also had an external fixator on her left leg. The next day she went back to surgery for not only her last surgery on her arm, but also had titanium rods put into her femur and tibia. This day was her last surgery on her arm. She was moved out of the ICU and put into a pediatric unit where she stayed for almost two weeks. Here, she took her first steps. Sabrina also had to go to a rehab floor where she did intense therapy until July 30. She also did physical and occupational outpatient therapy until October. Today, Sabrina is out of therapy and doing very well. She walks on her own without any assistance.

Jonathan, Sabrina’s son, has had a rougher road to recovery.  He had a life saving procedure done on the day of the wreck where they took out the left side portion of his brain and his skull. He had a skin graft on his leg and also got a gastrostomy tube put in. He was in the hospital until September 21 and is now an outpatient doing physical and occupational therapy. Today, Jonathan is still getting food through his G-Tube, but is also getting food by mouth. He has relearned how to sit up, roll over, and move around all by himself.

“Nothing could’ve changed that day and Jonathan is a miracle baby,” Sabrina said.

Sabrina originally came from Phillipsburg, Kansas and this is also where the wrecked happened. Since Jonathan was spending a great amount of time at Children’s Mercy, her family decided to move to Eudora where she now attends school at. Although it is not ideal to move to during your senior year, Sabrina, was willing to make the change for Jonathan.

Sabrina and her family show that no matter how bad something might be, you should always push through. Life isn’t always fair, but you have to look at the positives in life.

Sabrina always says, “Just take it one day at a time.”