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  “The day our world changed” web posted August 26, 2008  TRENTON – It is 2 am
in the morning and
the phone rings. On the other end of the line are frantic teens telling
parents Steve and Robin Faulkner of Jacob-McKie Road that their son,
Shaun, had been in a wreck. At first it was believed to be a simple
wreck and nothing major until Mrs. Faulkner arrived on the scene. “That
was the day our world changed,” she said recounting what she saw when
she arrived. Shaun was rushed to the MCG
Trauma Unit and was not expected to live. “Shaun coded (heart stopped)
as he was wheeled into the emergency room,” Mrs. Faulkner said. After
months in critical condition in a drug educed coma, countless
surgeries, and continuing therapy, Shaun is still recovering a year
later. “Have all those young people that came and cried at the trauma
unit with us all those months learned anything?” she asked
rhetorically, “No.”That was one year ago today and it is the reason the Faulkner’s wanted to recount the events of the past year with their son Shaun. “Not only do we worry about Shaun,” Mrs. Faulkner said, “we worry about them. They (the teens) are back doing all the things they were doing before Shaun’s wreck. At times I think they have gotten worse.” Below: The Tachometer of the Mustang frozen at 8,600 RPM's after the crash  Shaun, who was 19 at
the time of the wreck, was a passenger in a high
performance Ford Mustang driven by his friend Brent Morin. The group of
teens left Jacob-McKie Road in different cars going to the Waffle House
at the I-20 and Highway 25 intersection to get a bite to eat. Several
of them, including Shaun and driver Brent Morin, had been drinking Mrs.
Faulkner said. Leaving from a red light Mr. Morin raced away and then
disappeared into a cloud of dust in front of a tractor-trailer truck.
The car slammed into a guardrail on the I-20 overpass, striking the car
in the passenger side where Shaun was seated.Mrs. Faulkner said she recalls speaking to their son as rescuers fought to extricate him from the car and get him to the hospital. “I will never forget him looking up at me and asking me, ‘am I going to die?’”, Mrs. Faulkner said, “and I told him no.” But surgeons at the MCG Trauma Unit were not as certain. As the family gathered at the hospital the news of Shaun’s injuries continued to worsen. The list grew to two pages of single spaced entries and often times included full cardiac arrest that lasted for several minutes. “Shaun had an angel in the emergency (operating room) by the name of Dr. Allisen Jill Buchanan Hugan and Dr. Colville Ferdinand,” Mrs. Faulkner said. “He (Shaun) would not be here today if it weren’t for them and God giving him another chance at life.” After two months in a drug-induced coma, Shaun began making miraculous recoveries in spite of the dire outlook. Afterwards he would be moved into a regular room only to be sent back to the Intensive Critical Care Unit again. After four grueling months Shaun was released to the Walton Rehab Center in December, just before his 20th birthday. It was the parents, and mostly the teens, that would come to the ICU and spend the night, write letters of encouragement, and visit Shaun’s room that got the family through the tough times. “The things they would write and tell us, or to see them sitting at the foot of his bed – I’ve never seen so many young men cry so hard,” Mrs. Faulkner said, “”It is what kept us, and Shaun, going.” But now that Shaun is nearing his recovery the very same teens are forgetting the promises they made as they gazed upon one of their own with life and death hanging in the balance. “What is it going to take to wake these young people up?” Mrs. Faulkner asked. In the last interview with EdgefieldDaily.com on Monday, Mrs. Faulkner said those same teens are now again drinking and driving as well as exhibiting other destructive behaviors. “I had one (of the teens) call me at 3 in the morning and I had to tell him to stay put and not to drive because he had been drinking. I don’t know why he called me, but I’m glad he did.” Mrs. Faulkner, who is a dispatcher for the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office, said she wanted to remind all teenagers of how fast their lives can change, or end, in an instant. “I want them to remember what they were feeling then (at the ICU) so that they won’t end up there, or worse.” “No parent deserves to go through that,” she said recalling how the family would witness other parents grieving when their child died at the trauma unit while Shaun defied all odds. “It was heart wrenching.” Mr. Morin, of Stephens Road, who was the driver of the car, was not seriously injured in the crash was charged with felony DUI with great bodily injury. He remains free on bond awaiting trial. The Faulkner family also wished to extend their deepest appreciation to the following people: Greg Baily, Wade Johnson, Paul Spano, and James Richardson of the Aiken County EMS, all the church families that “lifted Shaun up in prayer”, and the outpouring of support from the community and her fellow coworkers at the Edgefield County Sheriff’s Office. “Some of the Deputies offered to give their sick days and annual leave to me while we stayed at the hospital around the clock because we were missing work,” Mrs. Faulkner said. “Everybody tried to do something.” However, county policy, she said, prevented them from doing so casting more hardships on the family, including the family’s Christmas. Coworkers quietly took up a collection that made Christmas possible for the family. “That meant so much to us,” Mrs. Faulkner said. Medical bills for Shaun continue to mount as he struggles to recover from his injuries. Mrs. Faulkner said Shaun wants to attend college in the very near future. ©
Copyright 2008
EdgefieldDaily.com All
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EdgefieldDaily.com and cannot be reproduced, rewritten or redistributed
without the expressed written permission of Edgefield Daily.com
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