Saturday, September 06, 2008
News
Faithful foundation
Argus-Press Photo by Anthony Cepak Paul and Kelly Thornsberry of Byron are shown with their 14-year-old son Chris, who was severely injured in a hit-and-run accident while riding his bike July 22. The incident, which happened just a few miles from the family’s home on Silver Lake Road, left Chris in a coma for four days at Hurley Medical Center in Flint.
By DOMINIC ADAMS Argus-Press Staff Writer
BYRON - Don't tell the Thornsberry family there's no power in prayer.
They might say that's not true - and then back it up with a little proof of their own.
It was a rainy evening July 22, as 14-year-old Chris Thornsberry rode his Mongoose 4130 bike down Silver Lake Road. Someone driving a red truck at least 45 mph hit Chris at about 9 p.m. The force of the collision launched the skateboarding and BMX bike enthusiast 30 to 35 feet, where he landed face-down in a ditch that was filling with water.
The vehicle then drove away, leaving behind remnants of a broken headlight, Chris' shoes along the road and a teenager fighting for his life.
“When he was in the emergency room and we didn't know anything - as hard as it was to pray - I wanted God's will to be done no matter what it was,” Chris' mother Kelly Thornsberry said, “because He knows my son better than I know my son. As hard as it was to say, if this is the only way he's going to get to heaven to take him now - I was ready to accept that.
“But He knows what kind of life (Chris is) going to live - I don't.”
Within a matter of minutes, events began to transpire that some would call luck or coincidence.
But not the Thornsberrys.
Kelly and Paul Thornsberry followed the ambulance to Hurley Medical Center in Flint. Kelly called the prayer circle at the family's Seventh Day Adventist Church in Linden. Other churches in Byron and the surrounding area also began calling to relay Chris' and the Thornsberrys' need for prayer.
“You're looking at a real miracle and you don't see that every day,” Paul Thornsberry said with his arm around his son. “When you see what God's done for your son, it humbles you.”
But the way the Thornsberrys' miracle played out could leave any skeptic wondering.
It started with Mike Anibal of Byron stopping after seeing a pair of shoes along Silver Lake Road.
Anibal said he heard of someone being hit along the road years ago and that the accident “took him right out of his shoes.”
After seeing the shoes and something shiny in the high grass, Anibal got out of his truck.
“As I got out I could hear him in the ditch,” Anibal said. “He was just kind of laying in a heap. I didn't want to move him.”
Anibal stayed with Chris until emergency responders arrived. Paul Thornsberry said Anibal's unselfish act saved at least half an hour - and probably Chris' life.
“He's my new best friend,” Paul Thornsberry said of Anibal.
Paul Thornsberry said rage welled up fast after he learned the cause of the crash. But the former U.S. Marine and Desert Storm veteran turned that angst over with the help of his wife.
“I just wanted to take (the fleeing driver) apart, but then you pray about it and you try to get a better heart,” Paul Thornsberry said. “When you start praying about it, you realize this person's probably scared. You start praying for his family too because eventually this person's going to have to face the music.
“Not that he hit my son - because accidents happen - but that they left him lying there to die. That's what hurts me now more than it angers me - that he thought that little of my child that he left him there to die.”
With water rising around Chris in the culvert, the Thornsberrys are adamant God protected their son.
“He landed face-down in that ditch - that's reality,” Paul Thornsberry said. “If one thing would've been different, it would've been a dramatically different outcome.”
It wasn't looking good when Chris arrived at Hurley. He had two brain bruises, a brain bleed, an injured spinal cord, bruised lungs, a broken elbow and femur. The Thornsberrys' middle child spent four days in a coma and three weeks at Hurley.
Paul Thornsberry said his son now is mentally closer to his 8-year-old sister than he is his 15-year-old brother.
Chris undergoes three hours of therapy three times per week, during which he works on his speech, his arm movement and other physical therapy. His injuries will prevent Chris from attending his eighth-grade year at Byron Middle School - he'll have home-based instruction instead.
A 4-inch scar on his right elbow marks the spot where doctors inserted pins and screws.
“The doctors were saying, ‘I can't put this on my chart, but he's a miracle,'” Kelly Thornsberry said with a grin that lit up the family's dining room.
The family's life has changed completely. Paul had to take a leave of absence from work to care for his son. The couple splits shifts giving their son 24-hour care. A long wheelchair ramp winds up and over the steps leading to the front door. Chris had to move his bedroom to the first floor because he still uses a wheelchair.
Chris had his chores re-assigned because he can't help care for the family pets or mow the yard.
The local Boy Scout troop Chris belongs to and others in the community have pitched in to collect $1,000 for a reward. If it isn't paid, the Scouts will buy bike helmets and give them to area children.
Two signs detailing the accident sit along Silver Lake Road.
“I have a hard time believing that somebody could hit somebody like that and leave him,” Anibal said. “That's pretty heartless.”
The Thornsberry family cannot stop thanking everyone for all the support they've received. The emergency responders, all the prayers and the staff at Hurley Medical Center made the difference, Kelly and Paul Thornsberry said.
“This one bad deed, look at all the good that has shown through in this town, in the people, Christians from other denominations, to our family to people we don't even know,” Paul Thornsberry said. “When people help you out when you're in a tough situation, it really means a lot to you. I want to thank those people who prayed for my son because they helped save his life.”
The family said a community fundraiser takes place from 3 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the farmers market in downtown Byron.
The Shiawassee County Sheriff's Department said it found numerous vehicle parts near the scene and determined the vehicle was a red GMC truck or Suburban between 1995 and 1999. Anyone with more information should call 743-2297.
“You notice every red truck you see,” Kelly Thornsberry said.
Chris said if he could, he would ask the fleeing driver why they left him in the ditch to die.
“Then I'd ask for an apology,” he said with a shrug. “I'd be mad, but I'd probably forgive him.”
- Contact Dominic Adams at 725-5136 extension 239 or by e-mail at dadamsarguspress@gmail.com.
They might say that's not true - and then back it up with a little proof of their own.
It was a rainy evening July 22, as 14-year-old Chris Thornsberry rode his Mongoose 4130 bike down Silver Lake Road. Someone driving a red truck at least 45 mph hit Chris at about 9 p.m. The force of the collision launched the skateboarding and BMX bike enthusiast 30 to 35 feet, where he landed face-down in a ditch that was filling with water.
The vehicle then drove away, leaving behind remnants of a broken headlight, Chris' shoes along the road and a teenager fighting for his life.
“When he was in the emergency room and we didn't know anything - as hard as it was to pray - I wanted God's will to be done no matter what it was,” Chris' mother Kelly Thornsberry said, “because He knows my son better than I know my son. As hard as it was to say, if this is the only way he's going to get to heaven to take him now - I was ready to accept that.
“But He knows what kind of life (Chris is) going to live - I don't.”
Within a matter of minutes, events began to transpire that some would call luck or coincidence.
But not the Thornsberrys.
Kelly and Paul Thornsberry followed the ambulance to Hurley Medical Center in Flint. Kelly called the prayer circle at the family's Seventh Day Adventist Church in Linden. Other churches in Byron and the surrounding area also began calling to relay Chris' and the Thornsberrys' need for prayer.
“You're looking at a real miracle and you don't see that every day,” Paul Thornsberry said with his arm around his son. “When you see what God's done for your son, it humbles you.”
But the way the Thornsberrys' miracle played out could leave any skeptic wondering.
It started with Mike Anibal of Byron stopping after seeing a pair of shoes along Silver Lake Road.
Anibal said he heard of someone being hit along the road years ago and that the accident “took him right out of his shoes.”
After seeing the shoes and something shiny in the high grass, Anibal got out of his truck.
“As I got out I could hear him in the ditch,” Anibal said. “He was just kind of laying in a heap. I didn't want to move him.”
Anibal stayed with Chris until emergency responders arrived. Paul Thornsberry said Anibal's unselfish act saved at least half an hour - and probably Chris' life.
“He's my new best friend,” Paul Thornsberry said of Anibal.
Paul Thornsberry said rage welled up fast after he learned the cause of the crash. But the former U.S. Marine and Desert Storm veteran turned that angst over with the help of his wife.
“I just wanted to take (the fleeing driver) apart, but then you pray about it and you try to get a better heart,” Paul Thornsberry said. “When you start praying about it, you realize this person's probably scared. You start praying for his family too because eventually this person's going to have to face the music.
“Not that he hit my son - because accidents happen - but that they left him lying there to die. That's what hurts me now more than it angers me - that he thought that little of my child that he left him there to die.”
With water rising around Chris in the culvert, the Thornsberrys are adamant God protected their son.
“He landed face-down in that ditch - that's reality,” Paul Thornsberry said. “If one thing would've been different, it would've been a dramatically different outcome.”
It wasn't looking good when Chris arrived at Hurley. He had two brain bruises, a brain bleed, an injured spinal cord, bruised lungs, a broken elbow and femur. The Thornsberrys' middle child spent four days in a coma and three weeks at Hurley.
Paul Thornsberry said his son now is mentally closer to his 8-year-old sister than he is his 15-year-old brother.
Chris undergoes three hours of therapy three times per week, during which he works on his speech, his arm movement and other physical therapy. His injuries will prevent Chris from attending his eighth-grade year at Byron Middle School - he'll have home-based instruction instead.
A 4-inch scar on his right elbow marks the spot where doctors inserted pins and screws.
“The doctors were saying, ‘I can't put this on my chart, but he's a miracle,'” Kelly Thornsberry said with a grin that lit up the family's dining room.
The family's life has changed completely. Paul had to take a leave of absence from work to care for his son. The couple splits shifts giving their son 24-hour care. A long wheelchair ramp winds up and over the steps leading to the front door. Chris had to move his bedroom to the first floor because he still uses a wheelchair.
Chris had his chores re-assigned because he can't help care for the family pets or mow the yard.
The local Boy Scout troop Chris belongs to and others in the community have pitched in to collect $1,000 for a reward. If it isn't paid, the Scouts will buy bike helmets and give them to area children.
Two signs detailing the accident sit along Silver Lake Road.
“I have a hard time believing that somebody could hit somebody like that and leave him,” Anibal said. “That's pretty heartless.”
The Thornsberry family cannot stop thanking everyone for all the support they've received. The emergency responders, all the prayers and the staff at Hurley Medical Center made the difference, Kelly and Paul Thornsberry said.
“This one bad deed, look at all the good that has shown through in this town, in the people, Christians from other denominations, to our family to people we don't even know,” Paul Thornsberry said. “When people help you out when you're in a tough situation, it really means a lot to you. I want to thank those people who prayed for my son because they helped save his life.”
The family said a community fundraiser takes place from 3 to 7 p.m. every Tuesday at the farmers market in downtown Byron.
The Shiawassee County Sheriff's Department said it found numerous vehicle parts near the scene and determined the vehicle was a red GMC truck or Suburban between 1995 and 1999. Anyone with more information should call 743-2297.
“You notice every red truck you see,” Kelly Thornsberry said.
Chris said if he could, he would ask the fleeing driver why they left him in the ditch to die.
“Then I'd ask for an apology,” he said with a shrug. “I'd be mad, but I'd probably forgive him.”
- Contact Dominic Adams at 725-5136 extension 239 or by e-mail at dadamsarguspress@gmail.com.