Boy who fell out of window makes ‘amazing’ progress, returns home
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AMMON– After their 6-year-old son fell 15 feet from his window onto a concrete patio, “survival” and “hope” were the last words the Ohngren family thought of.
“We were told he was in critical condition with severe brain trauma. From a lot of what we heard, they didn’t expect him to survive the injuries,” Stephan Ohngren said.
Even though Stephan and Holli Ohngren were facing the worst news of their lives six weeks ago, they’re now describing their son as a “fighter” and a “walking miracle.” After 10 days his swelling had gone down. In three weeks he had begun to walk again. And Nick and his family were able to leave Primary Children’s hospital in Salt Lake City well before initially expected.
“They let us go four weeks early,” Holli Ohngren said.
Ohngren said a bike group called Servant Riders – Motorcyclists For Jesus Ministries escorted the family to where they had been staying in Salt Lake City. On Saturday, the Ohngren family brought Nick home, and family and friends were there to greet them. Nick had a new bike from a neighbor and a newly decorated superhero room.
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“It was amazing,” Holli Ohngren said.
The day of the accident in May was like any other Sunday, but a little more special. It was a daughter’s birthday, she said. Nick was sent to his room to change out of his clothes after having continued his tradition of digging into his sister’s birthday cake.
Nick’s parents had seen this and sent their girls to look for him.
“Finally my daughter Brinley said, ‘I found Nick, he’s lying on the back patio with his shirt off, and he’s just acting really funny,’” father Stephan Ohngren said.
The parents rushed outside.
“When I first saw him, I thought he was dead because it is a long drop, and I knew it had been about 10 minutes since I’d seen him, so I didn’t know how long he’d been out there alone,” Stephan Ohngren said.
Nick was unresponsive for days and was unable to open his eyes due to swelling.
“He didn’t respond to sound or movements or anything. He just stared off into space for probably a week,” Stephan Ohngren said.
“Three weeks we hadn’t heard him talk, and he said ‘mom’ as his first word.”
His skull was fractured, and he had bruising on his brain, minor spine fractures and a swollen left eye. Other than that, he had no broken bones.
Doctors said it was like he had a massive concussion. But throughout the uncertainty, Nick’s body seemed to prove a fast recovery.
“Many of them mentioned they’d never seen anyone ever recover as quickly as he did,” Stephan Ohngren said.
Each day he was able to make one more movement with his body.
“After three weeks we hadn’t heard him talk, and he said ‘mom’ as his first word,” Holli Ohngren said.
With no dead brain tissue and his personality intact, Nick continues to be the goofy 6-year-old he once was. The Ohngren family is working on settling back into normal life, but they’ve said Nick can’t do any extreme type of activities for six months.
“You never think that it’s actually going to happen to you until it does,” Holli Ohngren said. “This experience has brought us all so much closer together as a family.”
She said they are working on getting safety features for all of their windows, and other families should do their best to keep safe.
“Just prepare your homes and make them safe so that you never do have to experience something so horrible, and if you do, just know that you’re not alone,” she said.