Beautifully Broken: A Mother’S Journey Through Her Son’S Traumatic Brain Injury and Recovery

By Rebecca Boone Kozowyk

After spending the morning in a CPR class, registered nurse and mother of three Rebecca Boone Kozowyk returned home to a family barbeque with her husband, sons, and parents. When her sixteen-year-old son David asked her for the truck keys later that evening to drive his girlfriend home, she handed them to him without a second thought, unaware that just a few hours later she and her husband would receive the devastating news that David had suffered a catastrophic brain injury and other life-threatening injuries in a horrible crash. At the hospital, they were told by doctors to gather their family together and begin making arrangements to bury their son, because his injuries were not survivable.

With nowhere else to turn, Rebecca placed all of her faith and hope in God and cried out to Him. Her desperate prayer for her sons survival and recovery set forth a miraculous chain of events that would take her and her son on a journey from completely shattered to beautifully broken.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490864228

Rebecca Boone Kozowyk

Rebecca Boone Kozowyk was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina and grew up in the Texas Hill Country and San Antonio. She and her husband, Joe, live in San Antonio and have three grown sons, a grandson, and a granddaughter. Rebecca works as a school nurse with San Antonio Independent School District and writes in her spare time. She seeks to glorify God and carry out His will in all that she writes. She is currently working on a middle-grade novel.

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Copyright © 2015 Rebecca Boone Kozowyk.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-6423-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6424-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6422-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014922673

WestBow Press rev. date: 2/18/2015

Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 The First Seventy-Two Hours

Chapter 2 The White Coat and Stethoscope Parade

Chapter 3 Thanksgiving & Thumb Wars

Chapter 4 I’ll be Home for Christmas

Chapter 5 License to Thrive

Chapter 6 Under Reconstruction

Chapter 7 The Grass is Always Greener on the Golf Course

Chapter 8 Pomp, Despite the Circumstance

Chapter 9 But Wait, There’s More!

Chapter 10 Meanwhile, In the Spiritual Realm…

Prayer of Salvation

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to thank my Heavenly Father, the Great Physician, who miraculously healed David and blessed him with an amazing recovery, and who planted the seeds of creativity in me long ago as a child and reawakened that creativity many years later; my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave His life on the cross for the sins of the world, and who was there with David the night of the wreck and hasn’t left his side since – He has taken every step with David and me; and my Ghost Writer, the Holy Spirit, who not only wrote this book through me, but guided me and ministered to me in my time of need by filling me with peace, hope, and understanding.

Many thanks go out to Dr. Sabrina Adams for the prayer, guidance, and support, and for first publishing this very important book. The true purpose of this book is to glorify God, for this isn’t my story, it’s not even David’s story; it’s His story.

Also, thank you to everyone at Roger Christian & Co., especially Roger Christian, Cheryl Jividen, Lindsey Roznovsky, and Krissy Martinez for bringing this story into the spotlight.

David wouldn’t be with us today if it weren’t for the Gossman family, who heard the crash and went out into the night to find David trapped inside the wreckage in the creek bed and called 911. I will never be able to thank the Gossman’s and their son, Jared, enough for what they did that night.

I will be forever grateful to all of the first responders who came to rescue David that night, and our good friends Carl Kosub and Chad Zaiontz, both volunteers with Lone Oak Volunteer Fire Department, for rushing to the scene and providing medical care in those critical first few minutes after the crash; all of the dedicated men and women of Lone Oak VFD who responded that night; the volunteers from Harmony VFD who also responded; the EMT’s with American Medical Response who answered the call for help that night; the pilot and crew from San Antonio AirLIFE who responded to the crash, especially the paramedic who climbed into the unstable wreckage to manually ventilate David during the prolonged extrication; and the Sheriff’s deputies from the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department who also came to render aid that night.

I would also like to thank our precious neighbors who joined hands and prayed for David while he was being rescued from the wreckage – God heard your prayers and answered them!

And to Mr. Kenneth Kosub, thank you for coming to inform us of David’s wreck. Joe and I have joked that you must have drawn the short straw that night, because coming to our door to deliver that kind of news couldn’t have been easy.

Heartfelt thanks go to the physicians, nurses, therapists, and staff who worked with David during his stay at University Hospital. I would like to especially thank Dr. Heather Chandler and Dr. Donald Currie; I truly believe God worked through both of these gifted physicians. To all of the nurses who work in the PICU and Intermediate Care Unit on the ninth floor of UH: You guys and gals rock!!! I would especially like to thank PICU nurses Robert, Sandy, Rudy, and Josh for not only caring for David, but for also caring for us during the darkest days.

I would also like to thank Julie Wiley, Corporate Communications Coordinator at University Health System, for embracing our story and arranging the book signing event in August of 2013; and Kathleen Vasquez, then manager of the University Hospital gift shop, for hosting the event and purchasing the book for sale in the hospital gift shop.

The therapists at Christus Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital (now Children’s Hospital of San Antonio) went above and beyond to help David recover by leaps and bounds during his inpatient rehab stay. James Moody, OT and Michelle Thompson, PT, both very dedicated and talented therapists, deserve very special thanks.

We are so thankful to Dr. Currie for referring us to his friends Cathy Sterling, OT and Kathryn Robinson, PT for outpatient therapy.

These two ladies are incredible therapists, and helped David reach his full potential by encouraging and challenging him during his outpatient rehab phase.

Dr. Tanuj Nakra of Texas Oculoplastic Consultants in Austin gave us our beautiful boy back, and we are eternally grateful to him for his amazing work in reconstructing the left side of David’s face.

Where would any of us be without family? I am so thankful God blessed me with such a wonderful family. To my loving husband Joseph P. Kozowyk, thank you for being the solid rock, the foundation that kept our family grounded in the midst of the storm, while I planted myself at David’s bedside. You had to go to work all day, then come home and wash loads of laundry, pay bills, mow the grass, feed the dogs, and make sure Kevin was taken care of, all while facing the fact that David was clinging to life in the hospital.

Kevin, I will always regret leaving you motherless for those months following the wreck. You are an amazing young man, a man of great character and integrity. And thank you for not hurting any of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word while leapfrogging with Alex through the hallways of Christus Santa Rosa Children’s Hospital!

Michael, thank you for helping Dad with Kevin, and being the adhesive that held us all together. Each time you came to the hospital was like a breath of fresh air.

I will never be able to thank my parents, Coy & Sandy Boone, enough for all they have done. They left the comfort of their quiet condo to live in their travel trailer out at our place in the months following the wreck. As hectic, and sometimes chaotic, as it was, I will forever treasure those days. Mom stayed with David while he was in the hospital and allowed me to go home from time to time, and eventually go back to work. She sat at David’s bedside and read Scripture to him. Dad drove David to therapy sessions with Cathy and Kathryn and appointments with Dr. Currie, and was a wonderful role model for him, having also recovered from a TBI many years ago.

My Great Aunt Pat is the matriarch of our family, a mighty prayer warrior, and an absolute saint. She immediately beckoned her fellow prayer warriors to pray for David and for us, and keeps the prayer chain alive to this day. She also sat at David’s bedside and read God’s Word to him. She has played an instrumental role in getting this book published and noticed.

My brother, Collis Boone, and his wife, Barbara, have been a great source of strength and support for us. They were there to support us when David was in the hospital, and still continue to support us.

I would like to thank Beaver & Stacy Blake, my dear uncle & aunt, for the many trips they made to be with David and with us, for their prayers and support, and for witnessing to others and sharing the story of David’s miraculous recovery with them.

Thank you to my uncle, Jerry Wilson, for driving all the way from Tulsa to see David and pray with us, and thank you, Aunt Colleen for bringing comfort to David when he was closest to death.

My great uncle, Jack Simms (Aunt Pat’s brother), had the foresight and wisdom, even all the way from California, to remind us Don’t forget about the little guy at home (Kevin).