Patient stories: A traumatic brain injury changed D’Vonnie Patterson’s life. Prisma Health was there.

Life can change in a heartbeat. For Unique Patterson and her children, D’Vonnie and London, a routine drive to school turned into a day that changed all their lives. After being struck by another vehicle, D’Vonnie and London were seriously injured. There was an added terror for Unique: D’Vonnie wasn’t responding to her voice.

The children were taken by ambulance to Prisma Health Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. London was discharged the next day, but D’Vonnie couldn’t breathe on his own and needed a ventilator.

“He had a serious traumatic brain injury that caused bleeding all around his brain,” Unique said. “I felt useless, honestly, because I wasn’t able to fix what was going on. I wasn’t able to just be his mama. I believe and I have faith, and that’s the only thing that got me by.”

Once he could be taken off the ventilator, D’Vonnie was moved from the PICU to the third floor, where his care team’s focus became helping him prepare for inpatient rehabilitation.

“When he came to rehab, he was capable of following commands,” remembered pediatric rehabilitation physician Matthew MacCarthy, MD. “He was capable of one or maybe two-word answers but mainly would nod and shake his head or give thumbs up. His answers were also not always in context because he was fairly confused. He also had significant difficulty moving one side of his body. So, he would often compensate by moving one hand with the other.”

D’Vonnie’s team focused on helping him rebuild his self-care and other life skills, like dressing, standing, walking, bathing and communicating through speech.

“My whole team was involved in his care,” said Dr. MacCarthy. “Alongside his physician and the nurses providing care, D’Vonnie had a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, a child life specialist, a music therapist and a cognitive educator.”

D’Vonnie has continued working to regain his mobility and quality of life each and every day since he left Prisma Health Children’s Hospital. Unique has been able to care for and work with him at home thanks to his Prisma Health care team, who made sure Unique felt prepared for and comfortable with helping him take his medications, continuing his therapies and generally providing the care he needed from the comfort of home.

“D’Vonnie went from, ‘We don’t know if he’s going to be able to walk again’, to walking, running and playing with the rest of the kids,” said Unique. “The level of care received from Prisma Health was the absolute best. It was people that really loved their job, and they showed us that love during inpatient therapy and after he was discharged, too.”

Today, D’Vonnie is doing well. He’s able to eat on his own and has gone from requiring eight daily medications to none. He attends physical therapy and speech therapy, helping his brain to create new pathways to regain the use of the right side of his body.

“The journey that we took and how it impacted me and my family made our faith go up tremendously,” said Unique. “It’s made us all so, so grateful for life.”