Abilene Boy Back Home After Eight Surgeries for Brain Injury
By: Jessica Reyes
Updated: November 8, 2011
A seven-year-old Abilene boy is back home after spending months in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury.
Triston Galvan has undergone eight surgeries since he was seriously injured in a car wreck August 12.
A driver hit the family's car as they were turning onto South 1st from Grape St. on the way to his grandfather's house.
Triston needed brain surgery and spent three weeks in intensive care after the accident. After weeks of rehab at Cook Children's Hospital, he came home October 20.
"He seems a lot more comfortable here than he did in the hospital. He sleeps a lot better," said Heather Duncan, Triston's mother.
Duncan said the last three months have been tough, but his parents and two brothers are happy to finally have Triston back at home.
"It's just different. We're all trying to adjust. But I think we're adjusting very well," she said.
Duncan said Triston is making progress everyday, but doctors haven't yet been able to give a long term prognosis.
"They won't give us a definite time because nobody knows if he's going to get better or if he's going to be like he is now. Which is totally different than how he was before," she said.
Although what's ahead for Triston remains a question, his mother said she's thankful for the first responders and hospital staff who saved her son's life that day.
"They did a really good job, the fire department and the paramedics. If they hadn't gotten him there and Dr. Brown hadn't had done the emergency surgery, the ICU doctors told us that Triston wouldn't have made it," she said.
The driver of the other vehicle received two citations - running a red light and driving without insurance. No charges have been filed at this point.
Triston Galvan has undergone eight surgeries since he was seriously injured in a car wreck August 12.
A driver hit the family's car as they were turning onto South 1st from Grape St. on the way to his grandfather's house.
Triston needed brain surgery and spent three weeks in intensive care after the accident. After weeks of rehab at Cook Children's Hospital, he came home October 20.
"He seems a lot more comfortable here than he did in the hospital. He sleeps a lot better," said Heather Duncan, Triston's mother.
Duncan said the last three months have been tough, but his parents and two brothers are happy to finally have Triston back at home.
"It's just different. We're all trying to adjust. But I think we're adjusting very well," she said.
Duncan said Triston is making progress everyday, but doctors haven't yet been able to give a long term prognosis.
"They won't give us a definite time because nobody knows if he's going to get better or if he's going to be like he is now. Which is totally different than how he was before," she said.
Although what's ahead for Triston remains a question, his mother said she's thankful for the first responders and hospital staff who saved her son's life that day.
"They did a really good job, the fire department and the paramedics. If they hadn't gotten him there and Dr. Brown hadn't had done the emergency surgery, the ICU doctors told us that Triston wouldn't have made it," she said.
The driver of the other vehicle received two citations - running a red light and driving without insurance. No charges have been filed at this point.
