This is a moment the Parker family will never forget: nurses surrounding their daughter’s hospital bed, singing to her and dancing as nine-year-old rosalie clings to life.
Months later, she would leave this bed with half of her body gone and a whole new world awaiting her.
The day that she was born, she decided to come and she’s had a strong spirit ever since.
Rosalie is Ben and Eileen Parker’s oldest child.
She has a seven-year-old brother, Micah, and four-year-old sister.
Charlotte always call her my mini mom.
The parkers might look familiar.
In 2018 we delivered some gift cards to them from an anonymous secret Santa.
I’m late with East Idaho news.
Rosalie was not camera shy.
We’ve been doing a secret Santa at school.
One year later, on Charlotte’s birthday life, as the parkers knew it, changed in an instant.
He had picked Rosie up from school.
I was at a Pto meeting.
I was turning into the driveway and i didn’t see an oncoming car and we got t-boned.
Ben had some minor injuries, but Rosalie had a fractured rib and torn liver, so she was taken to Irma.
They had to pick me up and put me on this little bed thing, and then they put me in the ambulance.
Within two to three days they said we’d be able to go home.
The crash happened Wednesday.
Rosalie was fine on Thursday, but Friday she developed a fever and wasn’t talking very much.
The next day her parents were in the lobby of the hospital greeting a friend when a code blue was called on the intercom to Rosalie’s room and we raced to the elevator and someone was at the elevator
And i said this is an emergency.
Our daughter’s dying and we got up the elevator, ran into the room and the lights were going off and we saw our daughter being worked on by tons of doctors and staff trying to bring her back and we were just holding each other crying and praying that she would be okay.
Rosalie was brought back to life and flown to primary children’s hospital in Salt Lake city.
Immediately they started working on her
And she coded a second time.
And so that’s when i called Ben.
And you know not sure if she’s going to make it through the night.
You need to get up here now.
Doctors discovered strep had formed in Rosalie’s blood and spread throughout her body.
Her organs were shutting down.
Basically, she’s not going to make it.
If she does, you’ll be on dialysis for years.
She’s not going to have any brain function.
Her kidneys will be shut down.
I was at her bedside and i told the nurse: please tell me that she’s going to live, and the nurse said: i can’t tell you that, but i can tell you, she’ll let you know.
The next day was agonizing as the parkers were faced with a sobering choice: if Rosalie’s heart stops again, should doctors resuscitate or let her go?
We came together and we just said: there’s no way we can make that decision.
We’re going to trust in how and and our father in Heaven, and and it’s in his hands.
Hey princess, the hours seemed like days, but Rosalie slowly began to stabilize.
I love you.
Even though she was asleep, she made subtle movements.
Her family was by her side every moment: reading, singing, praying, holding her hand and telling her how much they loved her.
It was scary, even as somebody that’s seen some pretty scary things.
Brittany Bedeau was one of Rosalie’s Icu nurses and there were.
There were stretches of days where there was no progress, and in those days-
I swear it’s that family- we would just sing and dance and, just like, bring light as best we could in like the darkest place you could ever imagine as a parent.
That light made a difference because one day Rosalie woke up.
It’s one of the few moments she remembers.
I felt myself laying in bed
And then i’m like mom
And she didn’t.
She hurt me and she’s like she’s awake.
It was January, one month after the crash and sepsis had caused blood to stop flowing to Rosalie’s limbs, doctors would need to amputate.
I didn’t know what it was like to be with him with no hands and feet.
Over the coming weeks, Rosalie endured 17 surgeries.
She ended up losing her hands, arms and legs below her knees.
It is Rosie’s ridiculously strong body that got her through that.
After three months, that strong body was ready to go home to Idaho falls.
I was really scared to come home at the hospital.
You have the nurses, you have your help, you have such a huge support system.
But it didn’t take long for a support system in eastern Idaho to rally around the parkers.
Aides, neighbors, family members, friends, church members and students and teachers here at ah Bush Elementary School stepped forward in a big way.
We tagged along with rosalie on the day her school celebrated Halloween.
She dressed as Cinderella complete with her.
She carriage the day in class before going to occupational therapy, where she proudly showed us how she eats, drinks and cuts paper without any hands.
Then it’s physical therapy in the pool, where Rosalie shows no fear.
After swimming, Rosalie heads back to school, where everyone seems to know and love her.
During recess she says she usually takes her wheelchair around the track while other kids play.
When i’m halfway around the track i get the bell rings.
On this day she simply enjoys a piece of candy and when asked if she needs help opening it, she politely declines.
After school Rosalie heads home with Micah, Charlotte and mom.
Most days an aide shows up to help with homework, reading and crafts before the parkers, eat dinner and settle down for bed.
Her confidence has just grown huge.
She had pretty bad anxiety before the accident and i don’t see it anymore.
Rosalie admits there have been challenges.
Going up and down the stairs was the hardest thing to learn.
Well, i cried a lot of times and then i got used to it.
But now she’s a pro.
Another worry: what kids might say about her when i first went to school.
I’m like mommy.
What if, like people say that your feet is gone and you kind of look weird?
But that fear quickly disappeared?
I noticed that a lot of people was being nice to me and now i’m not that embarrassed anymore.
You’d think life would be more complicated for the parkers now, but they say things are just the opposite.
It is just so much happier it’s.
We’ve met people we would have never met before.
It’s actually so much better the routines that we’ve been able to set, the health that we have every day.
Rosalie is already on her second pair of prosthetic Legs-
Okay, princess, you ready and she’ll likely go through two to four pairs a year until she stops.
Growing arms could come later in life.
There are memories on the parker’s living room wall of her last handprint before the amputations.
But ask Rosalie this question: is there anything you missed that you could do before that?
You can’t now, and it takes her 15 seconds to come up with this answer: nothing.
Rosalie’s story is full of miracles, according to her family, and they don’t dwell on how such a minor car crash ended up this way.
I thought that i was 100 responsible.
Over time i’ve realized how my father knows what he’s doing and, Rosalie, her will to live was stronger than anything that the doctors were telling us.
The parkers believe Rosalie is here for a purpose and despite all the hard times, they say they wouldn’t change a thing.
I think it’s opened our eyes to how much good there is in the world and how wonderful people are.
She’s a miracle.
She is an absolute miracle that we are blessed to have on this earth.
I feel like we’ve been very blessed up to this point.
She has a destiny, just like everyone God’s fulfilling a special purpose.
