Parker County Today June 2015 | Page 12

JUNE 2015 PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY Jayden Rhodes, Gary Grote, Nikki Grote Rhodes knew help was on the way because the driver was on the phone with 911, but I kept wondering ‘Where are they?’ We were only about five minutes out from the dock. We could still see the bridge near the dock and the cars on the highway. We were so close yet so far away.” Two Aransas Pass police officers finally arrived to evacuate Gary and Cheryl, after borrowing a boat from a Good Samaritan at the dock. After the wreck, life would never be the same for Gary and Cheryl, in both good ways and bad. It turned out that the 9-inch laceration that was so deep it exposed the skull was the least of Gary’s problems. He suffered a broken back, broken neck, broken ribs, and broken bones in his face. The broken bones in his back caused damage to his spinal cord. The neurosurgeon that performed the five-hour emergency surgery in Corpus Christi said he was lucky to be alive. He also said there was only a 3-percent chance 10 Gary would ever walk again. With fractures in her neck, Cheryl was also admitted to the hospital in Corpus, and she was put in ICU, just two rooms down from Gary. Again so close, yet so far away, the medical staff refused to provide Cheryl with information about Gary’s condition, due to HIPPA laws, since she was not technically part of his family. She had to wait until his family members arrived to get updates on Gary’s condition. When she was finally allowed to get out of bed, in a hard neck brace and hospital gown, Cheryl limped into Gary’s room. She found him in the same gown and neck brace, only he was not awake. There were still tubes in his throat helping him breathe. She took his hand and leaned over as best she could in the brace and kissed him. “Gary George, can you hear me? I love you.” Then she repeated something he always says in hard times or during a crisis. “It is all going to be OK.” She wrapped her hands around just one of his large hands and kept talking to him, even though there was no response, reminding him of her love and praying for his recovery. Four days after the wreck, and still one day shy of their one-year anniversary, Cheryl had to say goodbye to Gary as the medics prepared to load him onto the jet that would bring him home to North Texas. Letting go of his hand was the hardest thing she had to do. “They wouldn’t let me ride in the jet with him. Even though he was still sedated I felt like I needed to go with him. When they told me they were close to the maximum weight limit, I left him in God’s hands; but I knew He would give him back to me.” Cheryl was right. When she arrived at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Gary was in ICU. The same tubes and wires were there, but he looked better than he did when he left Corpus. The doctors eventually decided to perform a tracheotomy and put a tube in his throat to help him breathe, but that procedure required the insertion of a feeding tube and prevented him from talking for some time. During the days he could not talk, Gary still communicated with Cheryl and his family. It was difficult with hand gestures, an alphabet board, and trying to guess what he wanted, but Cheryl seemed to understand him more than anyone. She could figure out what he needed, soothe him when he was anxious, and provide the kisses he often