Nuance - I Speak Dragon

dragonstories2011 Posted: 06-17-2011 7:58 PM

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My name is Patricia Tate and I am the administrator of a skilled nursing residence for medically fragile children in Yakima, Washington, and we provide 24/7 medical care in a nurturing home-like setting .

Veronica, one of our children, went skipping to school one day with her sisters, and woke up several days later with no feeling  below the neck .  She asked what was making all the beeping  noises and was told it was her breathing machine-she could no longer breath on her own.  She had been struck by a pick-up , the driver of which did not see the red light due to sun glare, and sustained a C-1 fracture to the neck, along with myriad other broken bones.   She was 10 years old when she became a ventilator dependent quadriplegic. 

Veronica is now 12 years old and for the most part is a happy girl.  She is bright, curious, loves animals, likes math, but doesn't care much for reading or sausage.  In spite of her tracheotomy tube , she can eat and talk, and talk, and talk. She is looking forward to entering middle school in the fall, but is also scared.  It's hard to be like other kids when you're in a wheelchair, hooked up to a ventilator that makes all manner of strange noises, and you have to have a nurse in attendance at all times.  Then of course is the fact that your school lunch has to be fed to you,  someone else has to take all your class notes, and if you are to get out of your wheelchair at all, it requires a Hoyer lift. 

The brightest spot in Veronica's day, just like most other kids her age, is the time she gets to spend on her laptop.  She has a facebook page, likes to play games, and email her family who live out of town.  We recently purchased the Dragon Naturally Speaking for her, and she is thrilled at the possibility of being able to get on facebook , email and other computer sites by herself.  The privacy!  The independence! Not having grown-ups in all her business!  Being able to research what she wants without someone else trying to direct her searches! 

Because of the ventilator, her speech pattern is not as easy or natural as other speakers, so "training her Dragon" is not an easy task, but she is working diligently at it, because for her, flying on the dragon is a taste of freedom. 

I am telling her story for her because she would be too embarrassed to do it herself, and because I think she is very special.