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Josiah Pleasant Cockram was born on February 14, 2005.
From the time he was born he was all boy, adventurous
and into everything!! He got away with it because he was
sweet as he could be and a little charmer!! He also had
quite the imagination!! He was a cowboy for a while, he never went anywhere without his boots and belt buckle, he had a secret agent phase, he often dressed up an “preached” sermons, sang songs, danced and did tricks!! At 9 years old Josiah was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, this was a huge life change, but it didn’t hold him back !! He still played sports, worked around the house doing things like chopping wood and helping with the family business. He became the person we all yelled for when we had something hard or too heavy to do !! In high school Josiah went through the welding program, wrestled for a few years but after an injury he decided to try tennis. He loved playing tennis!! He actually takes credit for recruiting people and making the boys tennis team great!! Haha.. Once he graduated, he started going to the gym, he would work and work and do teach himself to do things most of us can’t .. muscles ups, backflips, handstands.. he would work at it until he got it!! Josiah also began to enjoy cooking, he started culinary school and while taking some time off began working at Maples Restaurant, he wants to continue doing this and become a chef!!
On the late hours of April 17, we got a call Josiah had been in an accident and was being flown to the hospital. We got the family up and went to Roanoke Memorial. When we got there we were taken into a room, they said, “all we can tell you is your son is alive” they eventually took us to the ICU waiting room, there we waited hours to get an update, the doctor came out and wasn’t too promising about Josiah’s condition, his injuries were so severe. He had bilateral dissection in his carotid arteries, he only had one vessel supplying blood to his brain, he had a broken femur, a broken tibia and fibula, both bones in his left arm were broke, both bones in his right arm were broken in multiple places including open fractures and a dislocated wrist, his left hand was fractured and several fingers on his right hand, he had broken ribs, a broken scapula, his left lung was partially collapsed and his face had multiple fractures including an orbital blowout, maxillary fracture, palate fracture, and fractures in both cheekbones. That’s a lot to take in!! We finally got to go in Josiah’s ICU room with him at 9:00am on April 18. They came in every hour checking movement and the reaction of his pupils. They days run together but I believe it was in the 19th we started noticing he was moving his left side less and less, his nurse told us it was because of all the injuries, when the trauma team came in the next morning I mentioned this to them and they rushed Josiah down to CT and it showed he had had a stroke. The doctor informed us Josiah’s best chance was to do a craniectomy. While in the ICU Josiah had surgery to place a chest tube, to place a nail in his femur from his knee to his hip, placement of a feeding tube, a tracheotomy, he had plates and screws put in both arms, his facial surgery which required many plates and screws, and his mouth wired shut. He was moved into PCU April 29, there he had one more surgery which was a nail placed in his tibia. In the PCU they struggled to control his blood sugar, and he struggled taking all that had happened in, and he dealt with extreme pain due to them weaning pain meds. Really the PCU was a struggle for us all, Josiah really still needed ICU care but the nurses there have multiple patients and can’t do that! While there he did start to move his left leg. He was moved to inpatient rehab on May 8. There they worked and got him up and moving, he started eating purées, he began to talk a little and at the end of the 3 weeks Josiah had some movement in his left arm and with help he actually walked out of rehab to get into our car!! He had some in home rehab and now has begun outpatient rehab in Salem. Outpatient rehab will continue for a long time. We were told possibly up to 2 years. Josiah has to have 2 more surgeries in the near future and more later down the road to remove the plates in his arms. The first 2 surgeries are the cranioplasty to replace his skull and the removal of a temporary plate that will give him movement in his wrist again.
Josiah’s condition has improved so much, he’s already doing things the doctors doubted he would ever do again, but he still has a long road to recovery. Our main focus now is balance, left hand movement and speech. Josiah has always been so smart, witty and full of life, never letting anything get in his way. our goal is to do whatever we can to get him back to doing the things he enjoys and being independent again. For now, mine (mom) and Josiah’s full-time jobs are doctors’ appointments, rehab and at home rehab. Written by,Gina Cockram
