Alice Brown:  

Life 04/27/09: Hi, all! Here's my attempt to provide an updated (since 09/15/05) bio of life after Azusa High. I married my high school sweetheart, Dale Brown, in Aug. 1986. We have 3 wonderful kids together: Amanda ("Mandy") - 22, Corey - 18 and Mariah - 13. Amanda married her high school sweetheart, Wayne, in August 2005. They've given us two beautiful grandchildren: Grandson, Cameron (born on Corey's 15th birthday), is 3 ½ and Granddaughter, Danielle, is 10 months old. Our family remained in Azusa until we bought our first home up in the high desert in November 1992. We sold that house in 2003 and had a house built in Apple Valley where we've lived since 2004. Mandy and Wayne are in escrow as I speak, to buy their first home in Murrieta. I dread the distance they will move away from us but Wayne, a Sergeant in the Marine Corp., is stationed in Camp Pendleton and Murrieta is much closer to the base. Dale has been employed at Los Angeles County, Department of Public Works, since 1986, where he's worked his way up from a Road Laborer to Superintendent. He was also a Seabee in the Naval Reserves for several years. While a 9th grader,age 14, our son, Corey, was in a tragic van vs. bicyclist accident while riding his bike home from school April 19, 2005, when he sustained traumatic brain injury with stroke, resulting in left side paralysis from face to toe and obstructive hydrocephalus. Along with the skull fracture, Corey had fractures of the bones in the right ear, neck, pelvis, and open fractures of the right tib-fib (the bones in the lower leg). By the time he arrived at Loma Linda (LLUMC) by Mercy Air, Corey was already on life support. After 4 intense hours of surgeries, hole drillings in his skull and other procedures to try to control the pressure (ICP) in Corey's rapidly swelling brain, the Loma Linda trauma team removed the right side of his skull to allow his brain to swell out (craniectomy). The surgeon warned us, "Your son is, by far, the sickest child in the Inland Empire" and despite all the their efforts, Corey likely will not survive. We had a private waiting room, Medical Social Worker and Chaplain to console us. But Corey survived. After two weeks on life support, a month in a coma, multiple surgeries to (1) repair the bones in his leg, (2) place a gastric feeding tube in his abdomen, (3) place a VP shunt in his brain and 3 months later, (4)place an artificial skull plate over the right side of his brain, along with enduring months of intense physical, occupational and speech therapies to relearn how to swallow, speak, sit (with assistance) and eventually move his left leg, we were finally able to bring Corey home from the hospital 97 days after the accident. In diapers, confused, with no short-term memory and still unable to move his left arm or hand, roll over, sit up or stand on his own, Corey required 24-hour care. I had to quit my job as a Managed Care Specialist to care for him. Corey's accident was a life changing experience for all of us. My family refers to memories as "Before Corey's accident" or "After Corey's accident". But we nearly lost two boys that awful day. Mandy, who was 24 weeks pregnant with our grandson, Cameron, at the time, was also riding a bike with Corey and witnessed the entire scene. Her pregnancy had been healthy and uneventful up until that day. She was fit and rode her bike everyday. But hours after witnessing Corey's demise, she went into preterm labor and was hospitalized at St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley. So, there we were; two of our kids in separate hospitals at the same time, nearly 50 miles apart from each other. Fortunately, they were able to stop the labor and Cameron was safe for the time being. But from that day on, the pregnancy suddenly became "high risk" and Mandy had to remain bedridden for the duration. She was placed on a medication that she had to take every 3 hours, around the clock, until she reached her 36th week in order to try to prevent the repeat onset of preterm labor; but it didn't always work. The stress and worry over her brother was too overwhelming for Mandy, and she had to be hospitalized weekly, at minimum, to stop repeat onsets of active labor. Through God's grace, Mandy endured the ...Expand for more