Letter to the Editor: DeJoode family wants to thank On With Life, others in Ankeny October 5, 2010

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Des Moines Register

Letter to the Editor: DeJoode family wants to thank On With Life, others in Ankeny

October 5, 2010

Five months after the devastating accident that took the lives of our two children, Carson and Claire, and left her with life-altering injuries, my wife, Heather, was finally able to come home last week.

Heather is resting and recuperating at home after being released from On With Life in Ankeny. When Heather entered On With Life, she was admitted to their coma/minimally responsive unit. She would occasionally open her eyes but showed few other signs of consciousness. She spent four months in their post acute, inpatient rehabilitation program. While at On With Life, she received daily, intensive therapies.

Upon discharge, Heather walked out of the building without the use of an assistive device. She will, however, continue to need extensive ongoing physical, occupational and cognitive outpatient therapy.

We are infinitely grateful to the staff at On With Life for their incredible support of our family through this difficult time. Heather will have extensive continuing therapy, but we are grateful for the progress she has made and attribute that progress to two things: Heather’s determination and the amazing care she received at On With Life.

Heather is aware of the accident and the devastating loss of Carson and Claire.

She, like the rest of us, is coping as best as she can, given the circumstances and her injuries.

Chase, our 3-year-old son, is home doing as well as he can. He is keenly aware of the accident and the resulting deaths and injuries, as he was conscious throughout the accident, as well as during his time in the hospital.

I returned to work in mid-June and am very appreciative of the incredible support from my employer, Jacobson Companies, and my coworkers. I am also greatly appreciative of our neighbors, friends and the entire community who have reached out in every way imaginable over the past five months to make life manageable for us.

Organ Donation

Our children, Claire and Carson, were organ donors. It was a difficult choice but one with which we are tremendously pleased. We have never regretted this choice and that was reaffirmed when we learned of the good that came of their donations.

The organ donation process became very real and moving when we were given the list of recipients, some of whom are alive today because of Carson and Claire. The following is the legacy Carson and Claire left behind:

- Carson’s liver went to a 5-month-old boy.

- Carson’s left kidney went to a 52-year-old mother of two, who has been undergoing dialysis three times per week since November 2007.

- Carson’s right kidney went to a 50-year-old mother of six, who has been undergoing daily dialysis for 2years.

- Carson’s heart valves went to help two children.

- Carson’s corneas went to an 8-year-old girl and a 40-year-old man.

- Claire’s heart went to a 3-month-old boy who was in end stage heart failure.

- Claire’s liver went to an 11-month-old boy.

- Claire’s kidneys went to a 51-year-old mother of seven.

Organ donation allows common people to do uncommon good. The choice to donate life is extremely personal. If nothing else good comes of our situation, we hope that everyone will educate themselves about the need and importance of organ donation by going to www.iowadonornetwork.org.

Moving forward

While our primary focus has been Heather and Chase’s physical, emotional and cognitive recoveries over the past five months, it is difficult not to concern ourselves with the potential criminal proceedings. We are anxious for justice to run its course so that we can close this chapter and go on about our lives. We have a tremendous confidence in the Ankeny Police Department and all the law enforcement agencies who have been involved in the investigation, as well as the Polk County Prosecutors office, that justice will be served in due time.

- Troy DeJoode, Ankeny