Friends, strangers rally around family of toddler who nearly drowned
Paul and Laura Gillum have kept an around-the-clock bedside vigil since their 2-year-old son, Dean, nearly drowned in the family’s backyard pool in Canonsburg Thursday.
Meanwhile, outside the hospital, family, friends and hundreds of strangers have shown their support through Facebook messages, donations and offers to help.
“The support we’ve received is very overwhelming for us,” said Laura, 42. “We couldn’t believe the number of people we don’t even know who have been sending us stories of hope about their children who have had similar accidents and have come out perfectly fine. It really has been one of the most helpful things, especially for my husband, to read and hear these stories. It’s amazing to me all of the people who are praying for us. It seems like everybody in the country is praying for us.”
The Gillums moved into the house on Linda Court less than two weeks before the accident, and Laura said many neighbors they hadn’t met have rallied around them, driving Laura’s mother, Barbara Rosenberger, to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC to visit Dean, giving them money for hospital parking, taking out trash and offering to mow the lawn and take care of household chores.
That enables the Gillums to spend all of their time with Dean (whose nickname is Burrito. When he was an infant, Laura gave him a bath in the sink and when she wrapped him in a brown blanket with a monkey head, Dean “looked like a little burrito,” she said. The name stuck).
Dean has been unconscious and unresponsive since the accident. He has had brain swelling and Laura said doctors have detected little brain activity.
In a Facebook post, Dean Gillum wrote doctors told the couple “if he lives he will be severely disabled and dependent on others. He has minimal brain function and a lot of brain damage.”
Gillum wrote, “I am constantly being told the worst by the meds…I have also heard wonderful stories from strangers who have suffered similar situations, that have children who have made full and absolute recoveries. So far, the good stories outnumber the bad. Please continue to pray. Please don’t forget my baby boy. He needs every one of you.”
Laura said the couple is hoping for a miracle.
“I just want people to pray. We really need a miracle,” said Laura, a member of St. Patrick Parish in Canonsburg, where Dean was baptized. “The more people who pray, the faster we’re going to get it.”
The couple sings to Dean and talks to him, and they play videos on his iPad. Laura brought his favorite toys and blanket for him.
“We’re trying to let him know we’re here and that we need to get him healthy and bring him home.”
Laura said Dean had been taking swim lessons at Cameron Wellness Center in South Strabane Township since he was six months old and loved being in the water.
“That’s one of the reasons we bought the house, because it had a pool,” said Laura.
Another reason they bought the house was so that Laura’s mother could move in with them. Her father, Paul Rosenberger, died in December.
On Thursday, Dean was playing with a bubble lawn mower in the backyard when Laura went inside to get him juice.
She couldn’t find him when she came back out.
Normally, Laura said, the Gillums took the pool ladder down and placed it by the fence when the family was done swimming, but it was still up that day.
When she looked in the pool, Laura saw Dean floating face-down. She pulled him out of the water, called 911 and performed CPR until emergency personnel arrived.
Dean was taken by ambulance to Allegheny Health System’s Canonsburg Hospital and then flown by emergency helicopter to Children’s Hospital, where he remains in the pediatric intensive care unit.
“He is so very smart. He loves shapes and knows what a rhombus and a ellipse is, and what a parallelogram is,” said Laura. “He started going on the Internet when he was 5 months old, and he like to watch learning videos for kids about colors and shapes and sizes. I’d like to take credit for some of his genius, but I can’t. He’s just motivated to learn. He loves trucks, and he loves balloons. He never stops, from the time he wakes up in the morning to the time he goes to bed. He’s always doing something.”
Laura, a 1991 Canon-McMillan graduate, met Paul while they were both serving as combat arms instructors at the U.S. Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas.
The couple taught basic trainees and security police how to shoot weapons, including M-16s.
“We became friends, and we had a lot of the same friends that we still keep in touch with,” said Laura, who was married at that time.
They remained friends for years and began dating in 2011, traveling back and forth between her home in Canonsburg and his, in Cattlesburg, Ky.
They married in May 11, 2012, four months before Dean was born.
Laura, who had suffered miscarriages and had difficulty conceiving, calls Dean her “miracle baby.”
She is a disabled veteran, unable to work because of a back injury she suffered from repeatedly hauling crates of ammunition in the Air Force. She has had multiple fusions of her lumbar spine, and her back is stabilized by rods, screws and brackets.
Paul is a pharmacy technician at Cigna.
He is taking time off from work to stay with Dean.
To help offset medical and other expenses, friends have set up a GoFundMe account, which has raised $3,160 in the past 24 hours.
Stacy Uzebu of Georgia, a friend of Laura who organized the GoFundMe, said Laura is one of the kindest and most thoughtful people she knows.
“As a mother, I can’t even imagine what they’re going through. I live in Georgia and I can’t bring food or help in any other way, so some of us said let’s do something to help.”
Laura said she and Paul are grateful for donors’ generosity and asked people to continue to pray for Dean.
“All of this is restoring my faith in humanity. There’s a genuine goodness,” she said. “My son is a wonderful little boy. He’s going to get through this and do great things in life.”
Note: To donate to the GoFundMe website, visit www.gofundme.com/burrito.