An Idaho girl, 9, is in critical condition after a freak accident left her with just “half of her skull,” and now her family are preparing to donate her organs.
Shaylyn Bergeson, 9, was playing in the backyard of her home in north Rexburg, Idaho, when she accidentally fell out of a tree and landed on a piece of rebar that punctured the left side of her brain.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene and airlifted her to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.
“She had a craniotomy and they removed half of her skull to relieve the pressure,” Shaylyn’s mother, Jesi Bergeson, told the outlet.
According to an update on a GoFundMe page set up by her family to help cover medical expenses, Shaylyn was given a “50/50 chance” that she would survive the surgery.
However, the 9-year-old’s family confirmed in a statement on the page that they were preparing to take her off life support to donate her organs so that Shaylyn could bless as many lives as possible through the tragedy.
The girl’s mother explained that she had told her a couple of months ago that she wanted to donate her organs if something were to happen to her.
“She without a blink of an eye said she wanted to donate everything she could. Our angel has just always been the sweetest, kindest, and most selfless lil girl her entire life,” Shaylyn’s mother said.
“Unfortunately God placed the desire for us to have that organ conversation on my heart for a reason. We are currently working with the transplant to make sure she can bless as many lives as possible through this horrific tragedy.”
It isn’t the first tragedy to strike the Bergeson family. In 2016, their 10-year-daughter Briauna sadly passed away, reported East Idaho News.
“She had a rare chromosome abnormality and passed when she was 10 after being on hospice for three years,” the mother told the outlet.
“Sitting here this morning I am unable to sleep and the thoughts keep creeping into my head,” Shaylyn’s father, Kurt Bergeson, posted on the family’s GoFundMe page on July 31.
“Why did this happen? What could I have done to stop this? Briauna is gone and now our beautiful selfless perfect Shaylyn is here and we are totally unable to understand why. The only explanations I can think of are that we are not meant to understand why at this time, only God understands,” he wrote.
“There is nothing that we did for this to happen and no way we could have seen something like this coming. Jess and I are truly totally heartbroken and no matter what we may never fully heal but I believe that our Heavenly Father must have very important plans for my girls.”
Shaylyn’s mother thanked the medical team who has been looking after her as she prepares to allow her “body to pass and continue to give live to another lil kiddo.”
“We love you all and cannot express how blessed and loved we have and do feel through this whole process. Thank you all and please continue to pray for us as we again prepare to do the one thing no parent should ever have to do: bury a baby,” she added.
