Danielle Eakman Westen's Warriors

Monday evening , 2/19, Danielle, Cierra, and Westen were in a bad car accident on their way home from hockey.  Another car swerved into the lane and hit their  SUV head on and then they were also rear ended by another vehicle.  The driver of the vehicle that hit head on was under the influence of alcohol and drugs. They had to break windows to get the kids out and from what we've heard they used the jaws of life to get Danielle out. All three were taken to Mercy hospital from the accident. Danielle and Cierra stayed but they transported Westen to Children's right away. 
 Cierra had a cut on her left hip that required 14 stitches and a deep puncture on her right knee. The doctor thought the puncture went into her joint so he thought surgery was the safest option to make sure it wouldn't get infected. Turns out it wasn't as deep as they thought and it was able to be cleaned and stitched. She was released Wednesday morning and is doing great!
 Danielle was very beat up! She had a small brain  bleed, multiple cuts on her face, a gash on her leg, very swollen ankle and a very large bruise on her chest and side. She was very out of it when she arrived at mercy, had no clue what happened and couldn't remember the last couple hours. Over the next couple days we learned that the only broken bones she had were in her nose, the bleeding had subsided and was getting better everyday! She was and still is very sore but all things concidered is doing very well! She had surgery to repair her nose Thursday and the great staff at Mercy knew she had to be with Westen. They discharged her Friday morning and we brought her straight to her baby. 
Westen has a much harder story to tell.... He is a very tough and strong little boy!! His seatbelt did a lot of damage (it also saved his life) to his stomach. They had 2 surgeries the night he came in to get him stable. He had such an extreme amount of swelling and trama in his abdominal area that they felt it was safer to leave his stomach open. He is and has been heavily sedated and on a lot of meds keeping him stable and breathing. Thursday he had another surgery to clean out the abdominal cavity and make sure everything was looking good. They found a black spot on his colon that had to be removed. He does have a temporary colostomy bag that will be with him for the next 6 or 8 months. That brings us to the fourth surgery on Sunday morning. It went great!!! They did a clean out and said everything was looking good. He still is heavily sedated and will be resting comfortably for the next week or so. Every 48 to 72 hours he will go back in for a clean out until the swelling goes down and then he will be closed up. Until then we brought some headphones for him to listen to his music (one of his favorite things to do!) and are just hanging out and chatting with him. 
 We can't thank everyone enough for all the support and help!! It has all been very overwhelming and a busy week. We hope to get back to everyone as fast as possible and honestly don't know how to show everyone how much we appreciate everything!! 
 Last thing for today, we could not have done it and continue to do it without the amazing staff here at children's! From the great nurses to all the volunteer staff here at the hospital we are so grateful for all the help and comforting through this extremely difficult time.