Mercee Nimmons, 8, returned home two weeks ago after spending time in the Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta for various internal injuries. Her physical activity remains limited. (Submitted Photo)
Heather Nimmons said her daughter Mercee Nimmons is doing well two weeks after returning home from the Children’s Hospital of Georgia in Augusta.
Mercee even made it out to see fireworks on the Fourth of July.
“The doctor told us, I don’t know how she was healing as well as she is,” Heather said. “Usually kids do heal fast, but I mean, those were some severe injuries. So I do believe it was just the prayers. I honestly believe that’s the only thing that did it, because it was just, it was bad. It was just a really bad circumstance.”
Mercee, 8, was airlifted to the hospital after suffering serious internal injuries when a large slab of granite fell on her back, pushing her into the rocks of a chimney on June 26.
A flat screen TV also hit her face, causing a concussion and breaking her nose, Heather said.
Her internal injuries included a stage 3 lacerated liver, two punctured lungs, pushed-in kidneys and abnormal intestines.
Heather said the doctor thought Mercee would do better at drinking liquids at home instead of keeping her at the hospital. A family friend offered to buy Mercee a Stanley Cup to encourage her to drink water.
“He said that she wasn’t drinking, and so he felt like she would drink if she was allowed to come home,” Heather said. “And she had started eating, but she was refusing to drink, and they really didn’t want to keep her there and just keep her on the IVs to keep her hydrated. When she came home, he said he could see that when her family came to visit her, she was excited and smiled, something she hadn’t been doing.”
The Nimmons family, which resides in Lexington, will know more about Mercee’s progress at her next appointment on Aug. 15.
“We won’t know till we go back,” Heather said. “She just can’t do anything because we don’t know. We don’t want to cause any internal bleeding with the liver being lacerated and punctures in both lungs. If she jumps or runs or if anything hits her, then it could cause internal bleeding, and we won’t know it without them doing X-rays or ultrasounds or whatever they’ll have to do.”
Mercee will return to school before then, but she won’t be able to participate in recess or PE classes. She is walking, but not able to run or jump.
“Right now, she’s just kind of bored out of her mind because she can’t do anything, so just coloring, making bracelets and playing at the table with games. That’s about it,” Heather said.
Heather said her daughter is just now able to submerge in water since her incisions from surgery have closed and the dressings came off this week. The swelling in Mercee’s nose has gone down.
Heather said she hopes Mercee won’t need reconstructive surgery on her nose.
“Could have been a totally different outcome than what it is,” Heather said. “She's extremely blessed, extremely blessed.”