Laura's Story
by Laura Laurencelle

It was one of those days you could never imagine happening. It was April 24, 1989. My husband, Trevor, had not arrived home from work. It was eleven thirty a m. He worked night shift. I started to get concerned so I called his boss. He seemed surprised at my call. He asked if Buddy had called me. I told him he hadn't, and he continued to tell me that Trevor had been in an accident.

Through searching of my own, I found out he must be at Lion's Gate Hospital. I called there and they told me they had nobody there by that name. I told the receptionist that he had to be there, I'd checked the other hospitals. She then told me there was an unknown man in I C U. I said that had to be him. I talked to the head nurse and I had to identify him. The only way to do that was to describe a tattoo he had on his left shoulder. I finally found him. The nurse said he was pretty bad. I was hysterical by this time and all the nurse could do was to try to keep me calm. My daughter at this time was only six months old. The nurse

asked me to get someone to watch my daughter and get down there right away. He had been in a head on collision and they didn't know if he would make it. I tried to get myself together enough to call his parents. His father came right away.

Within an hour or so the whole family was at the hospital. All that kept running through my head was that he wasn't going to make it. We arrived at the hospital. The doctors and nurses took us into a room to explain his condition. They said that he had multiple fractures on his skull. He was bleeding on the brain and also fluid on the brain. His frontal lobes were damaged quite badly. His jaws were broken and his face was cut up quite badly. The doctors said he'd need a lot of plastic surgery. Trevor was in a coma. The doctors told us they were hoping he'd wake up within nine days. If not, it could be a long time.

I finally went in to see him. My heart just fell. This person did not look at all like the handsome man I loved so much. His head had expanded tremendously. All the life support systems were on him. He did not look at all alive.

I knew I had to be strong for Trevor and my daughter. I tried so hard to keep a positive attitude, but deep down inside I knew he was going to die. The days ahead were very hard for me. I was at the hospital day and night, spending as much time with him as I was allowed. We started to see some progress. He was completely off the drugs. I would talk to him continually and finally he started to move around. If you touched any of his injuries he would move that part of his body. The nurses would try to suction the tubes in his mouth and he would try to push them away. It was quite apparent that he could feel pain and hear. I talked to him one night for 45 minutes about our daughter and how much I loved him. He had tears come from his eyes. I was so excited. I really began to believe he would be okay.