Saving Bobby [PDF]

24-PAGE SPECIAL SECTION WRAPS MAIN NEWS LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY.COM SUNDAY, FEB. 26, 2006 | NASSAU EDITION $1.50 TheThe tale tale ofof an an LI LI miraclemiracle NEWSDAY PHOTO / MICHAEL E. ACH Bobby Palange, 3, jumps rope in the kitchen with his brother Jacob at the family’s home in North Bellport. COPYRIGHT 2006, NEWSDAY INC., LONG ISLAND, VOL. 66, NO. 176 2 C he North Bellport father backs his family’s Dodge Durango down the driveway on a snowy morning in February and accidentally crushes his young son’s head. One year later, the 3-year-old boy is alive and remarkably well. Not because there was any one defining moment in the struggle www.newsday.com to save Bobby Palange. TTBut because there were so many. NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006 He may look like any other 3-year-old but Bobby Palange, seen here with his sister Megan at home in North Bellport in the fall, is lucky to be alive after his dad C www.newsday.com NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006 ESA HT IHE .ACH E. MICHAEL / PHOTO NEWSDAY backed over him in their driveway a year ago. 4 PART 1 BY BRYN NELSON STAFF WRITER C im Polly-Palange has just finished a month of jury duty and allows herself a rare day off before returning to her secretarial job in the radiology department at St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson. The 35-year-old mother of five will visit the dentist with her three oldest children, while 1 2/2-year-old Bobby and his younger brother Jacob — one week past his first birthday — will go along for the ride. An overnight snowstorm has complicated her plans, however. At 8 a.m., the snowflakes floating by her cream- colored ranch in North Bellport give way to freezing rain. go, where a path has now been The story cleared to the street. But surely his dad will be there soon and This account is based on help Bobby look. medical records, police In the meantime, the toddler reports, direct observation waits behind the sport utility of one surgery and dozens vehicle and all but disappears. of interviews with family Consumer Reports recently Robert Palange, Kim’s members, neighbors, tested how well drivers could Everything 30-year-old husband, heads police officers and medical see a 28-inch traffic cone outside soon afterward and be- personnel from four through the mirrors or rear gins to shovel away the four Long Island institutions. window of various vehicles. inches of wet snow blanketing Conversations are based For a 5-foot 8-inch driver like falls the driveway. The Palanges on observations, inter- Robert in a 2004 Dodge Du- have regrouped after a rough views, eyewitness accounts rango Limited, the testers spell in their relationship, and marked off a blind spot ex- they now agree on a plan: He and police records. tending 19 feet and one inch apart will free the family’s Dodge from the rear bumper. KDurango first and back it out Within this “blind zone,” as Kof the driveway so his wife advocates call it, young chil- on a can do the same with her back out again,” Kim recalls. dren can essentially vanish. Ford Windstar. “He’d come in, and as soon as I Robert returns from the In a quieter moment of the started to take off his jacket, side of the house, where he’s day, Bobby might be coaxed to he’d want to go back out put his shovel away. He Monday. sit through a reading of his fa- again.” doesn’t see Bobby but notes vorite book, “Brown Bear, Bobby runs out and Kim clos- that the front door has shut Brown Bear,” or to nap with his es the outer glass door, which again. Surely Bobby must be favorite stuffed animal, a flop- has fogged up like a bathroom back inside. py-eared dog named Snoopy. mirror. Then he’s back, nose At 9:33 a.m., Robert gets into This is not one of those mo- dripping, gloves missing, wait- the Durango, turns the key in ments. ing to be let in. the ignition and shifts the Presidents A boy in perpetual motion, “Oh, my hands are cold.” 2.2-ton SUV into reverse. he is seemingly always run- “OK, well why don’t you stay Robert runs over something ning. Or jumping or throwing a in?” Kim asks. hard with the left rear tire. ball in that uncanny pitcher’s “No I want to go outside.” It must be leftover snow or a Day. motion, whether at home or at So his mother tries to lure pile of bluestone, he reasons, the Tutor Time day care center him in for good — or at least and continues to back up. But he has attended since he was until everyone else is ready for there it is again, this time be- eight weeks old. the trip to the dentist. neath the left front tire. www.newsday.com Bobby adores his father and “Do me a favor. Go get your He stops the vehicle and gets follows him everywhere, even gloves. Where are your out to take a look. To his hor- carting around a play set of gloves?” ror, Bobby is lying facedown tools when Robert works on “By daddy.” on the driveway. the car. It’s only natural that “OK. Go get your gloves and “What did I do?” he yells. the toddler should head into bring them to me.” Kim opens the door and her the driveway after him, bun- It will take Kim about a week husband is holding their son. dled up in a coat, gloves and to figure out what happens There is blood and she is think- knit cap and towing his own lit- after Bobby bounds from the ing, “OK, what did he do now?” tle shovel. front door, past the white Bobby’s always getting into But there are plenty of dis- porch columns with their gin- something. tractions, to his mother’s exas- gerbread brackets and down But then she sees her son’s peration. the walk to the driveway. face, and the way his eyes have Bobby Palange before “He’d come in, and I’d feed He doesn’t find his gloves or the accident. him breakfast, he’d want to go his dad behind the 2001 Duran- See BOBBY on 7 NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006 5 www.newsday.com NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006 ESA HT AE IE STABILE WILES KAREN / PHOTO NEWSDAY With the scars of skull surgery still visible, Bobby sits on his mom’s lap less than three weeks after the accident. 6 Six frantic hours Visit Newsday.com/bobby to take an interactive look The miraculous rescue of Bobby Palange from a at the coordinated effort from police, ambulance and near-fatal auto backover hospital workers, doctors and others who played a role on Feb. 21, 2005, involved in saving Bobby Palange. a coordinated effort from police, ambulance and hospital workers, doctors and more. In some cases, times listed are approximate. Stony Brook 25A THE ORDEAL STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL 9:33 a.m. Accident at 86 the Palange home. 25A MILES PER HOUR 9:37 a.m average speed of 4 ambulance traveling Suffolk County 911 from Brookhaven to . dispatcher makes a call to Stony Brook d South Country Ambulance. R i a n 9:38 a.m. 347 i NYS S Ambulance en route. Conservation t 9:41 a.m. M Area 25 - Ambulance arrives at the e POLICE CARS u g end of the block where the recruited to block off o h Palange home is in c cross streets t North Bellport. for ambulances a 25 Centereach P 9:43 a.m. Ambulance departs Palange Selden home for Brookhaven BrookhavenCoram Memorial Hospital Middle . Medical Center. y Island w k 9:50 a.m. Suffolk P Community Ambulance arrives at loyd hospital. Bobby stays at Lake College F Ronkonkoma Brookhaven Hospital for Farmingville m a about an hour before being i Brookhaven l transferred. l i National 11 a.m. W Laboratory Ambulance arrives at Stony Medford Brook University Hospital. LIRR 495 11:05 a.m. MacArthur Rd. Bobby is officially admitted Airport to the hospital’s emergency department. BROOKHAVEN SOUTH COUNTRY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL AMBULANCE 11:30 a.m. Nicolls MEDICAL CENTER BUILDING Bobby is taken to an PALANGE operating room to prepare HOME for surgery. Sunr i se Hwy . Noon North Surgery begins and lasts Bellport 27A about three hours, after M 3 ontau 2 which Bobby is placed in a k H w y . 1 barbiturate coma and kept under observation for about www.newsday.com another half-hour. 3:25 p.m. Bobby is taken to hospital’s intensive care unit. Blue Point Distance: Distance: Distance: 17 18.6 15.8 miles 2.8 miles 2.4 miles MINUTES MILES (Approx. 11 min. ambulance driving time) from accident traveled by to arrival at ambulances 0 1 2 3 4 5 Brookhaven transporting Bobby hospital MILES NEWSDAY, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2006 NEWDAY / ROD EYER 7 BOBBY from 4 ing, contrary to the dispatcher’s intracranial pressure. THE FIRST TO HELP initial report. Then the cries Brain cells instigate it by fir- rolled up into his head. There’s stop, the breaths become shal- ing in unison, blanketing their the Durango at the end of the low, and the officers know they surroundings with a confetti- driveway and she knows. have little time to lose as they like burst of signaling chemi- She screams.

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