Angelo Di Corpo
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When Angelo was 8mo. old he was in a car accident. He was improperly restrained in a baby carrier, not a car seat, that was belted into the car. The driver fled and left Angelo alone in the car. He was rushed to Mission Children's Hospital where he was intubated because of grunting respirations. Angelo had a cervical and thoracic spinal cord injury, multiple skull fractures, left brachial plexus injury, acute loss of consciousness, quadriplegia, and a lung injury. After 5 days in the PICU they were having difficulty maintaining tidal volumes and providing adequate ventilation with a 3.5 endotracheal tube in place, so they changed it to a 4.5. After 10 days in the PICU he was still not able to get off the vent so 11 days after the accident Angelo got his trach. He is still on the vent and doing much better,17 day's after he gets a G- Tube .
He spent 4 weeks in the hospital and then was moved to a rehabilitation center. He was there 2 weeks and then had a cardiac arrest. He was sent to Children's Hospital of Orange. He had aspiration pneumonia, Heart tests were all normal. Repertory so good at the hospital they start to wean him from the vent. He was sent back to rehab with out the vent and eating some soft foods. Angelo spends another 6 weeks at rehab working with occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, respiratory therapy, and nursing care.
Jump to November 2004. Angelo has been in foster care and needs a new foster placement. Our family steps up to the plate and we decide we are up to the challenge. We spent 2 weeks learning all of Angelo's care. CPR, suctioning, trach care, cool mist, nebulizer treatments, apnea monitor, urine cath, bowel care, and stretching exercises. He now has use of both arms (left much weaker than right), but has no feeling from the nipple line down. We also need to deal with eating issues, ot/pt, speech, and learn how to adapt our routine for a child in a wheel chair. I took 2 weeks off of work (I'm a teaching assistant autism K-5) to help get him settled in our home, got nursing set up, and made appointments to meet many of his doctors. We still had a lot lot of adjustments to make!
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July 2005, He no longer has eating problems. He eats most foods now, He loves sausage and Chicken the most. At his latest OT/PT evaluation we found out he has feeling to just above his belly button! Angelo has been learning sign language since coming to us, and has about 75 to 100 words he uses regularly. We have just started looking into what can be done about the trach and how long he will have it. AND............... We just adopted Angelo! He has enriched our lives so much! Even though I had known him before he came to live with us, I could not have imagined how much he could touch each of us in his own special way! It's as though it was meant for him to be in our family.
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Thanks,
Steve, Louise, Aubrey(20), Andrew(16), and Angelo(3) Di Corpo
