Atin Ito First Filipino Community Newspaper in Ontario
On Christmas Day, Marjolaine Rocheleau was looking forward to spending quality time with her grandson, opening presents, baking cookies and playing outside.
Instead, she spent the day at CHEO waiting for updates on his condition, after seven-year-old Jayden Hunter was seriously injured in a collision on the evening of Dec. 22.
“His pelvis is broken in four different places, and also a vein in his left leg was sectioned in two, and they had to bring the vein back together,” Rocheleau said of his injuries.
On the way back from visiting his cousins for the holidays, Hunter and his uncle were involved in a four-vehicle collision at the intersection of Blair and Ogilvie Road around 11:15 p.m.
Marjolaine Rocheleau holds a picture of her seven-year-old grandson, Jayden Hunter, from before the collision. (Safiyah Marhnouj/CBC)
Hunter’s uncle told Rocheleau the car was stopped at a red light when it was struck from behind, propelling it into the intersection and oncoming traffic.
It took first responders over 30 minutes to get Jayden out of the vehicle using the jaws of life, Rocheleau said.
Driver charged with impaired driving, dangerous driving
Ottawa police said a 23-year-old man from Ottawa was arrested at the scene and charged with impaired driving causing bodily harm and dangerous driving causing bodily harm. The investigation is ongoing, police said in a statement.
Rocheleau said the accident was hard enough on Hunter, his mother and the rest of the family, but hearing that a driver was charged with impaired driving made it more difficult.
She said it was upsetting that because somebody may have made a “terrible choice in life”, it would have “a long life impact” on her grandson.
Jayden Hunter’s mother, Cora, sits at his bedside at the children’s hospital. Since the collision on Dec. 22, Hunter has undergone two surgeries and needed nine units of blood. (Submitted by Marjolaine Rocheleau)
Hunter has since had two surgeries on his leg, lasting over seven hours in total and needed nine units of blood.
Next week, he’ll be back in the operating room for another surgery and will likely need a skin graft in the coming months to close the wound on his leg, Rocheleau added.
“We don’t know the rest of the impact because he’s not conscious enough to be able to speak to us,” she said.
It’s been incredibly difficult for Rocheleau to see her bubbly grandson now hooked up to several tubes, unable to speak or move.
“Because of the trauma, the shock of the impact, his entire body’s still swollen and bruised everywhere,” she said, adding he’ll occasionally try removing his breathing tube and intravenous tube because he finds them painful.
The road to a full recovery could take months, she added.
“He has to be immobile for about four weeks, for him to have this vein heal properly. But imagine a seven year old to tell him, for four weeks you can’t move.”
No other family should have to deal with something like this, Rocheleau said, adding she hopes Hunter’s story can help highlight the consequences of driving impaired.
Ottawa police said so far this year they have charged more than 870 people with impaired driving.
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Credit belongs to : ca.news.yahoo.com
