Copyright 2006 The Oregonian
All Rights Reserved
By STUART TOMLINSON
The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon)
Kendra Kavanagh was lost.
The 21-year-old volunteer firefighter, student and nursery worker had just dropped off her boyfriend, Kyle Myers, at the West Valley fire station in Willamina. She was trying to get back on the highway to head to her home in Eagle Creek.
The two, dating since they were juniors at Estacada High School, had spent a few days at the coast. Both plan to become career firefighters. Myers, also 21, had been a volunteer for the Willamina Fire District for just a month and wasn’t on duty March 30, but he wanted to introduce his fellow firefighters to Kendra. She had recently finished her basic emergency medical technician training, was getting ready to start her third year as a volunteer with the Boring Fire Department, and was set to start paramedic school.
“It wasn’t just her bubbly personality,” said Boring firefighter Andy Welk. “She always insisted that she didn’t want any special treatment during her training. She’s been a very active volunteer.”
A few minutes after she left the firehouse, Myers recalled, Kendra called him on her cell phone. She was trying to navigate a tricky intersection, a place where Oregon 18, the Oregon 18 business route and Oregon 22 come together east of Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde. The stretch of highway is notorious for fatal accidents and has been designated a state safety corridor.
“It looks like a four-way stop, but there’s only three stop signs,” Myers said. “I was talking her through it, and then I heard a screaming gasp and the phone went dead.” At first he thought it was a dropped call. But when he called back, there was no answer.
“My heart sank,” Myers said. He jumped into his pickup and drove toward the intersection about two miles away.
A passing paramedic was the first to reach Kendra. She had pulled in front of a minivan going about 55 mph; police would find no skid marks.
The van hit her Dodge Neon compact broadside on the driver’s side, pushing it 50 yards down the road and into an embankment.
“The driver’s-side door was all the way to the center console,” her father, Ken Kavanagh said. “She’s tiny. If it had been me or anyone bigger, they would have been crushed.” Myers got there, and the first ambulance and firetruck pulled up.
The firefighters on board were the same ones Kendra had met 10 minutes before. Now she was unconscious.
Her injuries were horrific
Neurosurgeon Dr. Michael Dorsen said in addition to the damage to her brain stem from the impact, the crash crushed the vertebrae in her neck where it attaches to the skull.
“A few millimeters either way could have killed her outright,” Dorsen said. Her jaw was broken. Four ribs, her clavicle and her pelvis were also broken.
Paramedics told Myers how Kendra scored on the Glasgow Coma Scale, which measures the extent of injuries based on verbal, eye and motor responses. She scored a three, the worst; 15 is the best.
The only good news: Paramedics had gotten to her quickly. They called for a Life Flight helicopter; within the hour she was being treated at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center’s emergency room and was transferred to the intensive care unit.
Her struggle for survival was just beginning.
Ken Kavanagh said doctors stuck a boltlike device into the top of her skull to monitor brain swelling, and her brain stem continued to hemorrhage.
She needed surgery to wire her jaw shut, but, luckily, the only internal injuries were to her ribs and pelvis, which doctors said would heal by themselves.
The most immediate danger came from fever. Doctors used ice packs and fans to keep her temperature down.
“She’s always cold,” her father said. “She sleeps with gloves on. To see her with ice packs all over her and no blankets . . . as a father, you want to cover her up.”
To help with her breathing, doctors performed a tracheotomy and hooked her up to a ventilator. Feeding tubes were inserted into her stomach and small intestine. She was put into a medically induced coma to control the brain swelling.
At first, Ken Kavanagh said, doctors couldn’t find the source of the fever, but it was later traced to her lungs. She had very little movement on her right side.
Long fight for survival
For 12 days, the battle to keep her alive went on in the ICU. After five days in the ICU waiting room, Myers, Ken Kavanagh and her brother, Steve Kavanagh, were exhausted.
A firefighter at Boring offered them free use of a large motor home; it joined two others in an outer parking lot at the hospital, where their vigil continues.
“It’s made such a difference,” Ken Kavanagh said. Gradually, Kendra’s doctors brought her out of the coma. Her father was ready.
“We got a lot of pictures of her friends and family and put them all around her bed,” he said. “We wanted her to see familiar faces when she woke up.”
When she did wake up, he said, he could see the fear etched on her face.
“She had all these tubes running everywhere,” Kavanagh said.
Through eye movements, hand squeezes and gestures, Kendra gradually came back to them. She didn’t remember anything about that day. Last week, when doctors asked her what month it was, she said “March.” After two weeks in the ICU, she was moved to another unit. The breathing tube came out. The hole from the tracheotomy is healing shut, but she still can’t speak, doctors think, because of possible damage to her vocal cords and from her jaw being wired shut.
The strength is gradually returning to her right side.
“If she walks away from this with nothing but a weak right arm, she will have been incredibly lucky,” Dr. Dorsen said. “Frankly, it’s remarkable that she’s done as well as she’s done . . . considering the force of the impact and the injury to her brain stem and the neck fracture.”
“It’s a miracle,” her father said. “There are little signs of improvement. . . . She can’t stand, but she’s gradually coming back.”
Kavanagh said that a week before the accident, Kendra was added back on to his health insurance policy because of her student status. But her recovery is expected to be long and expensive.
A fund has been set up in Kendra’s name at Key Bank and U.S. Bank. The Boring Fire Department will hold a spaghetti dinner fundraiser and raffle in June.
In a week or two, Kendra is expected to be moved to a rehabilitation unit at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital and Medical Center.
“We want her back,” said Alice Lasher, Sandy-Boring Fire District spokeswoman. “And we think she’s coming back. . . . That’s the only thing we’re talking about.”