HUMBOLDT — “She’s our miracle girl,” Lacy Dillow said Monday afternoon of her and husband Brian’s daughter Gracie.
A year ago this afternoon Gracie, now 7, and sister Morgan, 5, along with their mother, were on their way to dance class in Chanute. They had started to cross the street in front of Memorial Auditorium when a pickup truck, driven by Jarek Maring, 27, Pittsburg, struck Gracie and dragged her several feet. Maring told officers the truck’s windshield was fogged over and he didn’t see the Dillows crossing the street on the drizzly day.
Both of Gracie’s arms and a hip were broken; a knee badly bruised; cuts and abrasions across her body as well as severe lacerations to her scalp.
A godsend was she suffered no brain damage.
Gracie remembers little about the incident, but for mother and sister the day is still a nightmare. Lacy said she avoids even looking at the street.
“I start to cry when I see it,” she said. The accident “was horrifying. Morgan gets upset when we go by there.”
Gracie spent five days in Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City immediately after the accident.
A week after the first hospital stay, Gracie contracted an infection and was back for nearly another week. In November she had the first of two cosmetic surgeries to deal with injuries to her scalp, and a second about a month later.
Hair hasn’t grown yet on some of the scar tissue, but with mom’s help Gracie has her hair combed each morning to cover the scars.
“The doctor had a name for it, but basically the hair in the scar area is in hibernation,” Lacy said. “They think it eventually will grow again.”
To help, a type of small balloon was inserted under Gracie’s scalp, which stretched the skin and permitted the surgeon to cover some of the scars.
A third surgery may be necessary.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” said Lacy.
Gracie always has been an active child and likes nothing better than frolicking outdoors, her parents said. The accident has put a crimp on that. Until just recently she had to forego outdoor recesses and physical education classes at Humboldt Elementary, where she will complete first grade Wednesday.
When Gracie is outdoors, Lacy ladles on sunblock and makes sure she wears a hat to cover the sensitive area of the scars.
“She got to participate in some soccer this spring and she’ll be able to play softball this summer,” Brian noted.
