Near death to Multi-sport Athlete
With the sound of cries in the air a young mother who also happens to be a nurse Krista Parker knew something wasn’t right with her three week old baby. So she immediately rushed him to the hospital, which was the beginning of a long night that turned into a long couple of weeks.
“I was putting him to bed when I realized something was wrong,” said Krista Parker “we drove him to the emergency room as quick as we could, in the back of my mind I knew that I would have to do CPR on him if we couldn’t get to the hospital in time. “
From being a happy healthy baby for his first three weeks Drew Parker was now fighting for his life, and his mother was waiting to see if her excitement of being a mom would last longer than three weeks. She anxiously awaited any news on her son as the nightmare of a night continued.
photo submitted.
The first report of information she received that night from the surgeon was not promising. “After he was stabilized, the surgeon told us that Drew was in grave condition diagnosed with a volvulus (the small bowel is twisted around itself and cutting off the circulation and killing his intestines), and that they would do everything to keep him alive.” Said Krista Parker. “It was the longest day of my life, finally we were given good news that they untwisted his intestines and that they immediately pinked up and then went back to normal.”
Obviously once Drew had survived his near death experience his life went on. His mom said he was a sick baby but after a few rough stages had a normal childhood. Fast forwarding to today, Drew plays football and rugby as a Freshman here at HSE. He has already played his freshman season of football and is currently in the middle of his freshman season for rugby. Drew has goals for the future for both sports.
“Freshman year of football went very well and what happened was higher than my expectations”, Parker said “For both Rugby and Football my goals are to start Varsity and to win games in the state tournaments.”
If Krista Parker hadn’t realized that something was wrong with Drew before she put him to bed, Drew wouldn’t be here today. He wouldn’t be the multi-sport athlete that he has become. With his so called “second life” Drew has exceeded everyone’s expectations of who was there or was aware of what happened to him when he was just three weeks old. Drew has very lofty goals for football and Rugby, but with his experience and what he has overcome no goal is too tall for him, and it would certainly continue to make a great story.
Story by Tyler Groves
Baby Photo provided by Krista Parker
