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NewsGIFT: Of life for injured teenContinued from Page B-1“That’s where my head was busted open,” he said. “And they had to shave my hair off to put the tongs in my head.”A torn, dislocated shoulder and broken back were secondary injuries to serious head trauma that left Fenwick in a coma for five days. His survival and ongoing recovery are nothing short of a miracle, said his mother, Eddie Huffman.“When we got to the emergency room, the neurologist prepared us for the worst,” she said. “And while he’s still got a long ways to go, he’s a fighter. He got through that and he’ll pull himself through this.”After emerging from the coma, Fenwick spent several more weeks recovering in the hospitalbefore being released. His life now is a mix of twice-a-week physical therapy, catching up onschool work and jamming on his electric guitar with friends in an informal group called, “Paraffin Wax.”His friend, John Kelley, 18, a North Pole senior, was also injured in the accident. While he joked about the scars on his lip, the memory of seeing his friend in the hospital turned him serious for a moment.“When I saw him he didn’t look too good at all,” Kelley said. “I kept thinking, ‘He always pulls through,’ and hey, he did.Fenwick’s battle back to health was cheered on by friends and family. When things that could go wrong, didn’t, even the doctors began to have some optimism, said his father, Jim Fenwick.“The doctors always put on a pretty good poker face, but it started to show—he was gettingbetter,” he said. “For me, every inch of progress was like winningthe Super Bowl.”His son’s accident has spurred Fenwick to take emergency medical technician training, something he had thought about doing for a long time but kept putting off.“You couldn’t ask for any better care than he got from the EMTs,” he said. “Those long-armed tentacles of 911 reallytake care of us.”The accident has strengthenedthe younger Fenwick’s belief in God and has given him a different perspective on driving.“You know how sometimesyou’re at an intersection and the person waits to turn and it can be irritating,” he said. “Now I think, ‘Maybe they were in an accident and are more cautious.’“I’m just more lenient on people’s mistakes.”
Newspaper Details
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Fairbanks, Alaska, US
Sun, Dec 17, 1995
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Edwina K.
AK, USA 13 Sep 2020
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