'Traumatic brain injuries are for life': Fowlerville family pushes through after rollover crash
FOWLERVILLE — Since a March crash at Chase Lake and Fowlerville Road resulted in a rollover accident, life for the Busard family hasn't been the same.
Kevin Busard is still suffering from a traumatic brain injury, among other long-term results of the crash. For his wife, Kayla, this last month has been anything but normal. Prior to the crash, Kayla was attending the University of Michigan School of Dentistry to get her bachelor's degree in dental hygiene. Kevin was working in heating and cooling.
Their daughter Kinsley, 8, and son Kolton, 4, would get dropped off at school each day. They participated in sports.
For the last two years, the family has lived in Fowlerville, but Kevin and Kayla grew up in Livingston County. This summer they were going to celebrate Kayla's graduation, finish house projects and enjoy the warmth — but that all changed at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 25.
"That's been one of the hard parts to kind of reconcile with ... we had plans to finish the house and sell it and buy some property," Kayla said.
"It's kind of weird, but the days leading up to it, I just had this horrible feeling. I just had this super intuition thing and I don't know what it was, but I would hear sirens and call my husband and he would be on his way home or something and I'd be like, 'Are you okay? I just wanted to make sure, I heard a bunch of sirens.'"
It was a windy and rainy Saturday. Kayla was getting ready to drive to Ann Arbor for one of her many boards and drop her daughter off at a friend's house near Cohoctah Township. Kayla arrived home around 5:30 p.m. Kevin left to pick up their daughter.
"We were going to have steak and crab, and he cleaned the grill all day just to celebrate finishing school," Kayla said.
The drive was about 20 minutes away, but 6:30 p.m. came and went, and they weren't home. Kayla started to get worried. She called Kevin once and he didn't answer.
"He always answers his phone," Kayla said.
She called again. No answer. She sent a text. No response.
"The wheels started turning and I'm like, 'Something's not right.'"
She gathered Kolton and her things and heard sirens. She checked the Livingston County Scanner Chat and saw a crash had taken place at Chase Lake and Fowlerville Road, the exact route he took.
She confirmed with a deputy on-scene that her husband drives a gray Suzuki.
Deputies with the Livingston County Sheriff's Office were dispatched around 6:23 p.m. on reports of a two-vehicle crash with injuries. They preliminarily found a 2017 Ford Edge, operated by a 30-year-old Fowlerville resident, was traveling north on Fowlerville Road when, at the intersection, the Suzuki failed to yield. Both drivers were transported to Sparrow Hospital. Kevin, 31, was in critical condition.
When Kayla arrived on-scene, EMS was attempting to remove Kevin from the car. It took approximately 45 minutes. Her daughter, who was in the car at the time of the crash, suffered a mild concussion and a few lacerations, and was sent to University of Michigan Mott Children's Hospital. Kayla jumped in the ambulance with Kinsley while Kevin was sent to Sparrow Hospital.
That night, and throughout the last month, Kayla has been supported by her mother and four sisters, among others, to watch the kids while she goes to visit Kevin in the hospital.
At first, doctors told her Kevin was a six on the Glasgow Coma Scale.
"It ranges from one to 15, I believe. The lower it is, the worse the patient's injury and responsiveness is," Kayla said.
That night, Kevin had multiple surgeries, including a splenectomy and a hemi craniotomy. They found he had three brain bleeds, one of them worsening. For several days, there were new scans every 24 hours, then every week, and now once a month.
It was 4:30 a.m. before Kayla was finally able to see him in the ICU.
"Sparrow has given phenomenal care. The neurosurgeons were just very closely watching him, especially with how extensive his injury was," Kayla said.
Kevin had multiple additional surgeries that week, including an external fixation surgery of his pelvis, internal stabilization of his pelvis, a tracheostomy, a bronchoscopy in which they discovered he'd aspirated a tooth and they'd need to retrieve it. He also had mandible or lower jaw surgery and had an IVC filter put in because he'd developed a pulmonary embolism — a blood clot in the lungs.
He was medically sedated from March 25-April 7, and he still hasn't been able to speak.
"I would have to switch from the emotional side. I'm the wife to 'OK, now I'm making a medical decision for someone else' and then I would do my own research and then ask all of the questions and try and make it not only what he would want, but also what's the most beneficial," Kayla said.
On April 10, Kevin was discharged from the Neuro ICU to Sparrow Specialty Long Term Acute Care. Kayla is looking into rehab facilities.
Each day, Kayla helps with different occupational therapy techniques. Until late April, he hadn't shown any emotion. But on the April 29, he cried at a video of his kids.
"I think the language comprehension is coming back. He's just becoming aware of his surroundings and his injuries," Kayla said.
Kayla has been slowly preparing the kids for what to expect when they visit. Kinsley visited her dad Monday, May 1.
"She's a very caring, understanding, strong and brave young girl," Kayla said.
Without Kevin, Kayla has been running the household alone, dropping her kids off at school and taking care of the finances — but she said she's received a lot of support from friends, family, her classmates and even a stranger who offered to change her flat tire.
She said beyond anything else, her faith is what's kept her going. But there's still a long way to go.
"Traumatic brain injuries are for life," she said. "There's all different types and all different variation and two people can have the same exact imaging diagnostically, but they could have two different clinical outcomes."
Donate to the family at gofund.me/fe124b2a.
— Contact reporter Patricia Alvord at palvord@livingstondaily.com.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: 'Traumatic brain injuries are for life': Fowlerville family pushes through after rollover crash
