Chapter
4

Shortly after Alex fell asleep, Dr. Kathy Quarls, the pediatrician arrived in the ER. She had been a friend to Elna and I since residency. Kathy was the chief resident in LSU pediatrics while I was a young medical student and later as I was an intern. When I was a medical student, Kathy had invited Elna and I to her house in uptown New Orleans at the end of my peds rotation. No one ever did that for a lower level, but Kathy did. She eventually joined a peds practice in Mandeville, and she was always our pediatrician.

 

Kathy arrived in the ER angry and apologetic. She said that the ER staff had called her on our arrival into the ER, but that she was not told the severity of Alex’s injury, nor was she told about Jackson. I didn’t know that she either had or had not been called, but I was thankful to see her now.

 

But then she asked me a gripping and terrible question.

 

Kathy became Dr. Quarls and put on her full roll as Alex’s primary care physician. She said, “Eddie, of course, Alex must be seen by a neurosurgeon and by the general surgeons to assess the injuries from the accident. I’m debating about airlifting her to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans.”

 

Four years before, we made sure that Jackson was born on the Southshore because of the extremely limited choices of healthcare on the Northshore at that time. In fact, there was only one female OB/GYN. A lot had changed in four years, but Dr. Quarls with consultation with a neurosurgeon and two general surgeons decided that Alex could be closely monitored in the ICU at St. Tammany and would not have to be airlifted to Children’s. I think part of that decision was weather related. It had not rained in a long time, but suddenly rain was coming down in buckets from the sky. Perhaps God was making it easier to make the right decisions, and Alex was going to be admitted to the ICU at St. Tammany.

 

As we awaited the transfer to the ICU, Pastor Waylon Bailey and Martha arrived in the ER. It was a time of release. Alex was unconscious from the nausea medication. We just were held in their arms and cried. At the time, they didn’t say anything. They just held us. It was the absolute right thing to do.

 

We updated them on Alex’s condition, and Martha began to take charge of a few things. I remember Dr. Weissmann bringing in another patient into Alex’s room to be seen for what appeared to be something minor. Martha, in her sweet but very direct way, saw to it that this did not happen. She took “Bob” (Dr. Weissmann) by the elbow and escorted him and the patient out of the room and said, “Let’s make sure to give this room some privacy, Bob.” He never came back with another patient.

 

Niki was also being treated in the ER. She was very bruised up and had many abrasions across her face, neck, and arms that were visible. I’m sure she must have had bruising across her whole body. She was accompanied by two Louisiana State Troopers that never seemed to leave her side. The troopers approached me and said that they would like to explain what they believe happened in the accident.

 

It was a description of an event that I never imagined and didn’t want to hear, but they explained anyway. They said that Niki told them that she had picked Jackson and Alex up from the summer camp at Cedarwood which they said they had confirmed with the staff at Cedarwood. (That startled me because that meant that Cedarwood knew about Jackson)

 

They said that after leaving Cedarwood that Niki was driving our Chevy Suburban with Jackson and Alex riding in their car seats in the back and properly buckled. The weather was hot, but no rain at all. They were driving down our street (Military Road) less than a mile from our home. As they approached a curve in the road, Niki told the kids that when they get home they would need to take a quick bath before they would head to a birthday party that evening. As Niki told the kids this, Jackson said, “Let’s take a bath in my bathroom.”

 

Niki says that she turned her head, neck, and body towards the kids to look them in the eye and say, “No. Let’s take a bath in my bathroom.”

 

As Niki made this motion to turn her body towards the kids, the car continued to go straight even though the road was curving to the right. The speed limit on that street is 45 mph. She was going at least that amount. As the car continued straight it crossed over the oncoming lane, and then abruptly entered the ditch on the other side of the road. The nose of the Suburban plunged headward into the ditch and began to flip end over end. On one of the end over end flips, the roof of the Suburban plunged into one of the brick column fence posts that our neighbors had. That fence post is what crushed the roof of the Suburban and caused it to bend inwards between where Jackson and Alex sat in their seats.

 

The troopers told me that they believe that Jackson’s body died instantly from the blow to the head. Jackson was pronounced deceased at the scene of the accident and never left his car seat alive.

 

Isaiah 40:8 New International Version

 

8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,
   but the word of our God endures forever.”