Charlee Shaw returns to Pediatric Intensive Care Unit after suffering complications during surgery

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS – Brett Shaw, a Clark resident, found himself sitting next to the bed of his 6 year old daughter at the pediatric intensive care unit of the Children's Hospital. Aurora Wednesday night, relying on her faith in God and asking for prayers to help her daughter, again.

"When all this began, I turned to all possible avenues to try to reach people," Shaw said. "We asked for prayers on Facebook, CaringBridge, and I started calling people from my network of friends and family, and we tried our best to try to let people know that we needed prayer for a prayer. very specific, it was very comforting. "

His daughter Charlee, who had been injured in an Interstate 70 accident on Christmas Eve, killing her mother and wife Sancy, was fighting for her life again. Brett took Charlee to the hospital on Tuesday, a day before surgery on Wednesday morning to place a flap of the skull on a part of Charlee's skull that was to be removed to relieve pressure after the accident.

"We had five appointments on Tuesday," said Brett. "They looked at his eyes and his leg, and they were both good. She was allowed to do any type of activity that she wishes regarding her leg. His head is another story. "

Brett said that Wednesday's operation had gone well.

"When coming out of anesthesia, she was able to talk and we did a little thumb war with her right hand," said Brett. The trauma surgeon came to see how she was doing and started talking. she and try to make her react. She was not very sensitive except for crying, and her right leg and right arm were not working at all.

The surgeon requested an emergency MRI and discovered that Charlee had bleeding to the brain and a blood clot. Less than 20 minutes after MRI, Charlee was back in surgery.

"They had to completely cancel everything they had done in the morning," said Brett. "They had to open the access again, remove the flap from the skull, find the clot, look for the bleeding and repair it, then put the cap back on and glue it back."

After the second operation, which lasted about two and a half hours, Brett found himself back at the USIP for another sleepless night.

"You know that doctors work to relieve the pressure on the brain that causes paralysis on the right side," said Brett. "You also know that every time you undergo an operation of this type, there is a risk of catastrophic failure, so that was a very real concern that night."

Thursday afternoon, Charlee was still in the USIP. She has already met occupational therapists, speech therapists and physiotherapists, who are evaluating her, and the doctors will wait to see if there are any long-term effects.

"With this skull flap replacement surgery, she would have spent five days at the hospital for surveillance," said Brett. "So, in a sense, we're still in this schedule, but it has added an extra element, and it will probably be a little longer."

The 6-year-old boy spent nearly two months in the hospital, recovering from a long list of injuries before returning home on February 20 in streets lined with a large crowd of people holding placards and cheering for their support of the family, which also includes Charlee's three brothers, Jaxon, 9; Mason, 11 years old; and Wyatt, 13 years old.

"We are optimistic, we should go back to the sixth floor today," Brett said on Thursday. "It's an indication that she's medically stable … that's the current goal."

To contact John F. Russell, call 970-871-4209, email [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @ Framp1966.