2016 CMN Miracle Child Adrian Canales

It was a Sunday afternoon and Adrian and his friends were celebrating a recent victory from their JROTC competition. They decided to celebrate by going to see a movie and having a burger.

“I remember dropping my son and his friends at the movies”, said Jose Canales, Adrian’s father. “A few minutes later, my phone rings and it was Adrian’s friend telling me  that my son had been in an accident.”

Adrian’s father learned through the distressing phone call that while heading to the movie theater, Adrian had tripped and had fallen over a two-story wall, landing head-first onto the concrete floor. When Adrian’s friends noticed he wasn’t moving, they decided to call his parents as well as 9-1-1.

“I remember getting out of my car and seeing my son lying on a stretcher,” said Leticia Garcia, Adrian’s mother. “They were about to put him into the ambulance when we got there.”

Adrian was transported to the Scherr-Legate Trauma Center at University Medical Center, El Paso’s only Level 1 Trauma center in the city. While Adrian was receiving care at UMC, the nurses observed him as nauseous, so they immediately called for an MRI.

“After the MRI, the doctors told me,” said his father, ”my son was bleeding from his brain.”

Due to the nature of the accident, it was found that Adrian had fractured his clavicle and his sternum; his skull was cracked from the left to right side of his head. Immediately, Adrian went into surgery to stop the bleeding and to avoid swelling in his brain.

Dr. Todd Trier, a neurosurgeon from University Medical Center performed the surgery to stop the bleeding and during the surgery, he placed a monitor on Adrian’s head to track the pressure of his brain. After the surgery, Adrian was transported to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at El Paso Children’s Hospital.

“The day after the surgery,” said Dr. Tier, “the intracranial pressure started to build up into the abnormal range and at that time, we made the decision to take him back into the operating room.”

Less than 24 hours later, Adrian went through his second head surgery and this time, a piece of his skull had to be removed to keep the brain from swelling. The piece of bone was then placed in his abdomen to preserve it for later re-implantation. Adrian was then placed into an induced coma and remained under the care of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at El Paso Children’s Hospital.

“Keeping somebody in sedation for several days is quite challenging,” said Dr. Jorge Sainz, a Pediatric Intensivist at El Paso Children’s Hospital. After seven days under sedation, the doctors decided it was time to wake him up.

Adrian’s father still remembers the day his son woke up. “His first words were mom when he saw his mom walking into the room. And when I got close to him,” said his father, his eyes filling with tears, “he said to me, I love you dad.”


Adrian spent another week at El Paso Children’s Hospital, where he received rehabilitation. A few weeks later, there was one more surgery to put the piece of his skull back in place.

The funds raised by Children’s Miracle Network allow for the purchase of equipment for the El Paso Children’s Hospital and prove critical in saving lives, such as Adrian’s.

Doctors and nurses could not provide the care our kids deserve without your generosity… without your support!

So every time you are asked, Will you donate to the Children’s Miracle Network?, think of the many lives you play a part in saving by answering a “yes” to that simple question.

 

Thank you.