Home Alone: Greg's Story
Editor’s Note: This story is part of a new series that features clients and families whose lives have been touched by Hemophilia of Georgia. Help us honor your journey and increase awareness of bleeding disorders by sharing your story. Click Here To Get Started
My name is Greg and my family has been going to HoG Family Camp for the last 2 years, and we LOVE IT. So thankful for all that your team does to make it happen. I wanted to share a story with you all of some recent events that happened to us.
Patrick, who turned two years old in March, has severe hemophilia A with inhibitors. About 4 weeks ago he had a bad accident at home. I was home alone with all three of my boys and Patrick took a fall in the living room and hit his head. He split open his forehead just above his right eye. It was bad. He got 5 stitches.
In that moment of panic my two young sons, Desmond who is seven and Liam who is four, came to my rescue. Without them I would not have been able to do what I needed to do. My oldest son Desmond was able to get my phone to call 911. He also ran to get a neighbor to help me get an infusion started as we waited for the ambulance to arrive. Liam got me ice packs. Then they waited outside to wave the ambulance down to come to the right house.
The twist in the story is this. All of this happened on a Thursday. It was on Saturday as I walked down the driveway to check the mail that I noticed writing on the driveway in chalk. The following was written on the ground "HELP PATRICK 27 MONTHS OLD" (Patrick was actually 22 months). I asked my oldest son about this. It turns out he wrote this all down on the ground while he was waiting for the ambulance. This blew my mind. My seven year old son, who is just learning to read and write, had the frame of mind to write down critical information to be seen by those who needed to see it in what was a very scary time for all of us. As a Dad, this broke my heart and melted it at the same time.
We focus so much on the members of the family sometimes who have hemophilia, but in a way as a family we all have it, we all live it together. I was not sure if you guys recognized little heroes at camp, but these two boys went above and beyond for their little brother that day and for me. I could not have done what I needed to do without them.