Miracle After Miracle
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Emporians Amanda and Dustin Crowell sat watching their three children, Taylor, 6, Caleigh, 2 and Rylan, 10 months, play Thursday morning, but the outcome could have been much different when the family home caught fire on Oct. 26.
On that Sunday evening, Amanda and Dustin were in the basement of the home around 11 p.m. finishing some laundry. They heard a couple of noises upstairs and were prompted to run upstairs and check — something that isn’t typical for the family, Dustin Crowell said.
“Normally when we put the kids down and hear something like a kid fumble we don’t normally jump to that,” he said. “I believe that was from above. She (Amanda) jumped right up.”
That decision to jump up and head upstairs to investigate saved the children’s lives.
“When I got to the top of the stairs the whole upstairs was filled with smoke,” Amanda Crowell said.
“You couldn’t see or breathe,” Dustin Crowell added.
Amanda immediately ran to their bedroom, where Rylan had been put to bed in a playpen. The parents’ entire bed was on fire. Amanda ran through one path where there was no fire, risking injury to save her son who was caught in the inferno.
“I’d like everyone to know how heroic that was,” Dustin Crowell said. “I’ve had so many people say that a lot of people, their bodies won’t let them do that (run into a burning room).”
Taylor got himself out of the house and once the family was outside, they realized in the chaos that Caleigh was still inside. Dustin ran back into the burning home to get Caleigh.
“He deserves the credit, too,” Amanda Crowell said. “He’s the one who went back to get our daughter.”
Looking back, the Crowells see many miracles that transpired that day. Rylan had a messy diaper before he was put to bed. He was changed into a flame retardant sleeper. That sleeper kept most of his body safe from the fire.
“That saved his body,” Amanda Crowell said. “To me that was from God.”
“Between jumping up and hearing it, it was all about the Lord,” Dustin Crowell added. “The path, the flame retardant outfit. Bottom line is I’m giving all the credit to the Lord.”
The miracles didn’t stop after the fire. Once the family was out of the house, Rylan and Amanda were taken to Newman Regional Health, where they were treated for burns. Rylan had to be flown to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City because of the severity of his burns. Dustin and Caleigh were treated for smoke inhalation at Newman.
Rylan was transferred to the Shriners Hospital in Cincinnati for further treatment of his burns. From there, it was a painful recovery for Rylan. Rylan’s parents were told he had second degree burns. The first few days at the Shriners Hospital, Rylan showed little emotion — something unusual for the baby, who is generally happy and bouncy and who was scaling furniture at his new apartment this week. Rylan’s burns had to be cleaned every day, something that was painful. Dustin said he stayed in the room with him; Amanda found it too much to watch her child in pain.
“That was one of the hardest things in my life to watch,” Dustin Crowell said.
But Rylan was a fighter. Up and down the halls of the hospital, children were crying, but Rylan acted different. He was strong, Dustin Crowell said.
“It showed me how different he is,” he said.
But there were more challenges ahead. Doctors wanted to do a skin graft on Rylan’s right hand, all of his fingers and his wrist. His parents chose to wait and see if the skin would heal further. They prayed and left Cincinnati on Nov. 5. They returned on Nov. 12 to see how the healing was progressing. The doctors at that point determined that Rylan needed grafting at the top of the hand and the top of the wrist. All the fingers had healed. Another miracle for the family.
“Not one finger had to be grafted in one week’s time,” Dustin Crowell said. “We love the people up there (the doctors at the hospital). But that healing overrode expert decision.”
Rylan had his skin grafting done on Nov. 13, and the family was back at home by Thanksgiving. Rylan still has to wear a pressure glove on the area and is healing nicely. This week as he was crawling and climbing about, he had full use of the hand.
Dustin and Amanda Crowell said they are overwhelmed by the support of the Emporia and surrounding communities. Clothing and supply drives were held, in addition to change bucket drives at convenience stores.
“I saw more love out of people than I ever could imagine,” Dustin Crowell said. “For the whole town to come together with toys and clothes. We had to find places for stuff. It’s definitely helped. I guarantee I’ll never pass another bucket from someone who has been in a fire without dropping some (money) in.”
Amanda agreed.
“It was just so heartwarming,” she said. “Just the love that people showed. It really is what got us through that time. That and our belief in God.”
The fire changed the Crowells’ lives forever, they said.
“It’s life-altering,” Dustin Crowell said. “We look at every day since the fire as a day with a big bow tied around it. Every day is a bow-tie day. It’s a gift.”
“It’s one of those experiences where you wouldn’t go through it again but you wouldn’t trade it for the world,” Amanda Crowell said.