Ongoing vigil

She was Lifeflighted to Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, where doctors found she’d suffered severe closed-head trauma, said her mother, Candy Barnard-Davidson.

As of Friday, Jan. 9, she remained in a coma in the OHSU trauma intensive care unit, her family keeping constant vigil, as seemingly each day brings a rollercoaster mix of hopeful signs and discoveries of more injuries.

“We’re just praying that she wakes up,” Candy said. Maya can move all her limbs, some more than others. She can respond to basic commands like “squeeze my hand.”

A collapsed lung is repairing, and a heart arrhythmia was temporary. When a nurse recently prodded Maya’s chest to test her neurological function, “her little right arm shot over and grabbed [the nurse’s] jacket,” Candy recounted. “We both just looked at each other like, ‘whoa.’”

Maya has bleeding on her brain, and an MRI was done Thursday evening, Jan. 8, to measure “what part of her brain has been affected, if any,” Candy said. The road ahead will be long and tough no matter what -- she’ll have to learn everything again, from walking to talking -- but this will tell them just how tough.

“We’ll see,” Candy said. Even if the results are dire, staff have told her of miraculous recoveries, especially in the young. “I’m optimistic. You have to be. What’s the alternative?”

As of press time Friday, she had not heard the results.

Candy has a deep, normally private, faith, but she’s reached out via Facebook during this crisis to seek prayer and support.

“I don’t know how people can’t have faith,” she said. “It gives us something to hang onto — You have to turn this precious person over to someone else and hope that God has given them the ability to fix your child.”

A community prayer vigil was held Friday for Maya at her family’s church, Gateway Presbyterian. After her pastor offered to have it, Candy recounted, “I said that would be a beautiful thing to do. She would love that. She might be embarrassed -- she does like attention though.”

And she had plenty of it in high school. Maya, now 19, was voted female athlete of the year — she competed nationally in skiing — and was a member of the National Honor Society.

Though a top athlete and scholar, Maya’s jubilant personality is her real trademark. “She is a people magnet,” said Candy. “People adore her — She lives big. She loves big. She’s got a very big, bright personality. Very sweet.”

She’s heavily involved in the community, and is a go-to babysitter with a special connection to kids. She went off to college —she’s studying biology — but came back to study at Columbia Gorge Community College, in part so she could teach skiing to little kids.

Even in a coma, her magnetism is felt. A nurse told Candy the hospital staff vie for the right to work with her.

An ultrasound tech told her “you can just tell she’s a special girl.” This, of course, just made Candy cry, “when I keep thinking I can’t possibly cry anymore.”

Pictures of Maya adorn the walls of her hospital room. Candy has made a particular favorite, of a broadly smiling Maya, her cover photo on Facebook. “The picture just is – joy. That’s just Maya. That’s how everybody remembers her,” Candy said.

TERRIBLE NEWS

On Dec. 31, Candy and her husband Mark were enjoying a quiet New Year’s Eve home alone. Maya was skiing, oldest daughter Sage was at a party in Portland, and their son Ian, a sophomore at The Dalles High School, was with friends.

Just before midnight, Maya’s boyfriend, Taylor Jackson, called with the terrible news that she’d crashed at about 11:30 p.m. They picked up Ian and rushed to Portland.

“I don’t think you can ever imagine – you shouldn’t – how painful, physically, it hurts,” Candy said of seeing her daughter so gravely injured. “Yesterday [Jan. 7] was a good day. I came up to her room, the sun was shining bright, I felt this lightness. I felt like this heaviness wasn’t there. It was peaceful — It was the first day I didn’t cry all day.”

Candy quickly began posting daily updates on Facebook, not only to tell everybody about what was happening and to ask for their prayers, but to also keep a record for herself of the timeline of events.

“I didn’t want to ignore her friends and she has so many people that really care about her. I just didn’t know there would be that much of an outreach.”

She’s staying at the Ronald McDonald House, housing for families of hospitalized children, and family and friends are staying in The Dalles with Ian.

Other friends have started a “gofundme” account – find it at www.gofundme .com/mayabd — to raise money for costs associated with Maya’s care. Candy certainly didn’t seek it, saying her family has good insurance, and she wanted any money to go to those who really need it.

In just a few hours, fund founder Sarah Anderson said Friday morning, the fund had already raised $1,500. Candy said she may donate excess money to Ronald McDonald House.

With the assumption that Maya can hear her, Candy chats with her and reads Facebook posts to her. Doctors and nurses talk to her about what procedures they’re doing.

Candy is keeping a scrapbook of her stay. “I’m taking pictures I’m not going to share anywhere of her recovery.” Medical staff encouraged her to document this time, because it’s scary for people coming out of comas to realize they’ve missed so much time.

Candy’s sister bought a journal she titled, “Maya’s Journey, say hi to me” for hospital staff to write in – something they’ve never seen done before.

One of the first things doctors did when Maya arrived was insert a fiber-optic probe in her brain to measure brain pressure. A week of various tactics to reduce swelling didn’t work. So on Wednesday, Jan. 7, as a last resort, a large section of the front of her skull was removed to allow the brain to swell. Her eyes are swelled shut, and the removed section of skull sits in a bone bank, awaiting replacement. When that will be depends on how well she heals. “It could be out for a month, it could be out for three months,” Candy said.

“When the swelling’s down, she will have to wear a helmet at all times. She won’t be happy about that. She has pretty hair,” her mom said.

Though she didn’t present with any visible injuries, a number came to light in the following hours and days. They soon discovered she had a collapsed right lung, and shortly after that, a broken right rib. Then they discovered a broken right shoulder bone, a fractured left wrist, a broken right thumb, and two more broken ribs. She has an injury to her spine, but its inoperable.

There are marks on her face that indicate she hit that side of her face.

Family have joked that Maya will “have to take up synchronized swimming” or some other non-contact sport after this, Candy said.

After eight endless days, Candy said, “It almost still seems like it’s not real in some ways.”

She’s resolutely hopeful for Maya’s future. “For someone with so much to give and so much to live and so much to offer, she can’t be finished on this earth.”