A Story About Love, Faith and a Miraculous Recovery
Story by Carol Montana, photos provided
SULLIVAN COUNTY, NY – In the wee hours of August 8, 2009, Neversink resident Kathleen (Kathy) Aitken received a phone call that no mother should ever have to deal with. It was her daughter Melanie, calling to say that Kathy’s son, Joe (a.k.a. Little Joe) had been hit in the head with a baseball bat – three times. Joe had been at a party in Claryville when he was attacked.
This is a story of love and faith. It’s a story of everything going right. A story about the miraculous recovery of a remarkable young man who refused to give up.
Kathy says that the miracles started when a young man who was a witness to the attack called for help from a cell phone in Claryville. There is no cell service in Claryville. But somehow there was on August 8.
“Joe got hit on the top of the head, on the left side, five times all together,” says his mother. “Three times in the head, once in the abdomen, and they thought his right femur was broken. His skull was fractured and he was bleeding internally. But he wasn’t bleeding on the outside. He could speak, but it was garbled, and Mobilemedic, which was one of the responders knew immediately that he was in trouble.”
Mobilemedic knew that Joe needed advanced life support and they took him straight to the helipad at Catskill Regional Medical Center (CRMC).
As the family arrives at CRMC, the helicopter lifts off for St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie. And a three-car brigade follows, consisting of Kathy and her partner (also named Kathy) a.k.a. Kat, Joe’s dad (also named Joe) and his girlfriend, Doris, and Joe’s sister, Melanie and her husband, Anthony.
“At St. Francis, they put us in a private room,” says Kathy. “They told us they had to stabilize him twice, and re-stabilize him twice. They did a CAT scan – which showed bleeding in his brain.”
Dr. John F. McNulty, put an intracranial pressure monitor in the right side of the Little Joe’s brain, got him stabilized and sent him to Vassar Brothers where he is the head of neurosurgery. Vassar Brothers is a state-of-the-art facility for trauma.
When the caravan got to Vassar Brothers, someone asked Little Joe’s mom, “Is he an organ donor.” As she recalls the moment, Kathy says, “That was probably the last question they asked, but it’s the only one I remember.”
Joe was put into a deep coma and the family was told that the less stimulation he got the better. But Joe kept moving, so they gave him pentobarbital to knock him out further. “They’re already using seven different lines in his neck,” says his mother.
Every time they spoke with a doctor, the family was told, “He’s holding his own. He’s fighting. He’s in the woods, but he’s fighting.”
Besides Dr. McNulty, Kathy credits three nurses – Carol, Ryan and Kerrin who were on Joe’s case. “That’s what saved him,” she says. “They saved him. Everybody saved him. Mobilemedic, CRMC, the helicopter guys, St. Francis, Vassar Brothers – everybody had a hand in saving him.”
At one point in time, Kat was looking for a sign that everything was going to be okay. “A woman walked in to the room where we were waiting,” says Kathy. “Her name is Angela Burgos and she is the Hospitality Coordinator at Vassar Brothers Medical Center. She was wearing an elephant on her neck, which was my mother’s favorite thing. And that was Kathy’s sign. … The hospitality department sent us a plate of sandwiches everyday, a plate of desserts, chips, water, sodas, every single day.”
And speaking of hospitality, Joe’s case manager, Alexis, found out that the family was driving two hours back and forth. She contacted the CEO’s secretary who reached out to the Poughkeepsie Marriott Hotel. The hotel, which was booked solid because it was the Woodstock Anniversary weekend, gave Joe’s family a room so they didn’t have to travel. “So we stayed there, and were blessed to be in bed two hours sooner, and could sleep an extra hour,” says Kathy.
All this time, Little Joe is still bleeding into his brain, and the nurses were having a meeting about him and suggested a new cooling machine that cools the blood and brings the swelling down. “For four days, a nurse named Ryan sat in his room with the door open just enough to get through, and the curtain pulled and the lights out, and he watched every monitor and wrote everything down for four days, and Kerrin sat at the desk and watched every monitor for four days and they kept him alive,” says Kathy as the memory finally brings tears to her eyes.
“I cried when it happened,” says his mother, “But there were no tears around Joe. It was all positive. Melanie was hysterical. This was her only baby brother. Her only sibling. But she knew not to go in his room that way. …”
On the fourth day, Joe made a turn for the better. All told, he was in a coma and on a ventilator for 11 days. On day 10 they start to reduce the medication. And while it’s supposed to take a week to wake him up, Joe has other ideas and begins to come out of his coma on the 11th day. He’s doing so well that they take him off the respirator.
Now he’s awake, but very groggy. And he recognizes everybody. “He knew me, and his father … and every time he saw somebody new, he would cry. That told the doctors that his brain was working – because he has an emotional attachment to us. … He couldn’t speak, but he had this kind of stupid laugh. Once he laughed, we knew he was going to be alright.
Joe’s right side was paralyzed, he was blind in his right eye and the right peripheral vision in his left eye was gone.
But on the 13th day, Joe was sitting in a chair.
“When I saw him sitting up, I couldn’t go in,” says his mom. “The head nurse stopped me, Kerrin stopped me, the doctor stopped me. Everybody was waiting for my reaction, because I hadn’t cried, and if I cried, they were all going to cry. So I got Kat, and I told her to go look, and she couldn’t go in. So everybody cried and then we went in. Joe wasn’t sitting up straight. He was still groggy. But he was no longer in the bed. He didn’t have the collar on, and wasn’t on a ventilator, and it was my son.”
Kathy still didn’t know at that point what kind of person they were getting back. “Everyday we could see an improvement. And before he left the ICU he was walking holding on to a wheelchair. And the next day he was walking without the wheelchair.”
At that point, because he had improved so much, Joe was transferred out of ICU to the sixth floor of Vassar Brothers hospital.
All the nurses and doctors, all the family members wanted Joe to go to Helen Hayes Hospital for rehabilitation. But there’s a problem. Joe is walking, and if you can walk, you can be an in-patient at Helen Hayes. But it’s time for another miracle and Joe is accepted into Helen Hayes where he remains for only five days.
“On the second day, they had him speaking,” says Kathy. “He was at therapy when we got there. He comes in with the therapist. And she says, ‘Tell your mother what you learned today,’ and he says ‘Mom.’
Kathy stops to regain her composure. “I got my son back. … I kept saying ‘I raised him once, I’ll raise him again without the same mistakes. Give him back to me, we’ll raise him.’ Joe came home to live with us on September 2.”
Nine months later Joe’s hand still doesn’t work right, and his speech is delayed. But he got all his eyesight back, which the doctor had told his family doesn’t usually come back after a trauma of that magnitude.
Sometime in late September or early October 2009, the family was asked to travel to Vassar Brothers for what is called a “spirit story.” It’s something they do to keep everybody’s spirits up. The day the Aitken family went back, the ICU department was one of the units being honored. Kathy was asked if she wanted to say something. “I did, but I didn’t because I knew I wouldn’t be able to get through it … but I felt compelled to say something because these people are amazing, and their boss needs to hear it. … I told the story, I thanked them all, and then I turned to the head of the hospital, Dr. Daniel Aronzon. He still practices as a pediatrician, and he has the same bedside manner with his people as he does with his patients. This man is a calm soothing teddy bear of a man, and when he tells you how he wants his place run, you can do nothing but please him. I didn’t even know this hospital till my son was brought there, and now I can’t tell people enough about Vassar Brothers.”
The man charged with the assault of Joe Aitken is 20-year-old Jesse Horos of Fallsburg. Nineteen years old at the time of the attack, he was charged with with first- and second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon, and pleaded guilty to first-degree assault.
With the consent of the Aitken family, Horos’ lawyer and the Sullivan County DA’s office worked out a plea deal of 6 1/2 years in prison, followed by five years probation.
“Joe didn’t want to go to court. He doesn’t want any part of it,” says Kathy, who says that she and Kat will go to the sentencing where they will present an impact statement and show the judge at least one photo of Joe laying in his hospital bed.
Horos was originally scheduled to be sentenced on May 26. That court date was postponed to June 9. On June 8, the sentencing was again postponed – this time to June 17. And on Wednesday, June 16, notice was received by the family that the sentencing had again been postponed. It is now scheduled for Thursday, June 24 at 9:30 a.m.
I am so grateful to hear that Joe is doing so well…….he was always a favorite of mine I think that God has BIG plans for him…… Isn’t it amazing what the love of a family and great medical staff can do…… love you guys…….Anna
Wow, great story (I cried). I am glad joe recovered so well and quickly. God was definitely shining down on your family!
thank-you carol!!!!this is a beautiful piece!!!!
i want to thank everyone who prayed everyday for my brother joe’s recovery and for my families strength!!!!
melanie!!
Unbeliveable story never knew what happened
Love and prayers to the family
This is the most heartfelt story I have ever heard
God Bless Joe Kathy Kat Melissa and Dad
Im glad Joes back
I will pray everyday for all of you
Love Elaine
God works miracles! Praise Him!
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I know Kathy. She is a Mama Bear when it comes to her family. It does not surprise me one bit that Joe has made such an amazing recovery! Love is a powerful thing. May they all continue to draw strength from one another.
Excellent story Carol – absolutely wonderful!! You made me cry! They are a great family and deserve all the miracles that came thier way!!!