Roosevelt Senior Fighting Back From Crash Injuries

Life can change drastically in the blink of an eye. Just ask the Marlow family.

Zach Marlow remains in the intensive care unit at Akron City Hospital – more than three weeks after . Three other Theodore Roosevelt High School seniors escaped with minor injuries, and Zach's good friend, .

Zach, 18, was riding in a classmate’s Jeep Liberty during a lunch break from school when the car spun out and rolled over in downtown Kent. During the accident, Zach was thrown from the vehicle and became trapped beneath it.

His mother, Laura Marlow, said the family has been on an emotional roller coaster since then, finding hope one day and despair the next over Zach's condition.

“I still can’t fathom how badly he was hurt and how long his recovery is going to take,” Laura said. “A doctor and a nurse have both said, 'This boy was broken to pieces when he came in.’ They keep reminding me that we’ve got to be patient.”

But patience is hard to come by, she said, when you spend weeks driving back and forth to an intensive care unit, not knowing if life will ever return to normal.

“I just keep asking, ‘Is he going to be OK? Is he going to talk?’ The doctors keep telling me, ‘We just have to wait and see. It’s going to take time,’” she said.

Aftermath of the crash

Family members – including Zach’s father and stepmother, Michael and Annette Marlow, and his sister, Jennifer Cline – take turns sitting at his bedside and hoping for the best. But they still don’t know the full extent of his injuries.

“He does have a brain injury," Laura said. "The CAT scans of his brain don’t show a big (injured) area. But the psychologist said what those scans don’t show is how much his brain was shaken. So until he starts speaking and letting us know his feelings, we can’t tell what damage is done.”

Zach arrived at Akron City with internal injuries that included a severely damaged liver, a collapsed lung, cracked ribs and a broken finger. His external wounds were equally as frightening for the family.

"His left ear was almost torn off, so they had to fix that," Laura said. "Part of his scalp was torn off, and the plastic surgeons are still working on that. He’ll probably have a scar he can show off."

There are also movement issues to contend with. “Zach’s still not really moving his right arm," she said. "He has a terrible cut (on the underside) that may include nerve damage, but we just don’t know yet."

On Thursday he had a second surgery on his left hand, which had a broken finger, and tendon repairs were made.

Zach spent the first two weeks after the accident on a respirator. Doctors placed him in a medically induced coma that included a paralytic drug for the first four days. The induced paralysis was meant to keep him still so he wouldn't move abruptly and further injure himself.

“He’s had four surgeries on his liver – three just to get it to stop bleeding," Laura said. "Then after they thought it was repaired, they had to put a stent in because it was leaking bile."

For two weeks, Zach consistently ran a fever of 102 degrees. At one point, it hovered at 104.

“They kept trying all kinds of different antibiotics to get his temperature down. They finally did a full-body CAT scan and found an abscess in his abdomen. They’ve been draining it for the past four or five days, and now his temperature is nearly normal, Laura said.

It's one of those fleeting moments of relief on the roller coaster — the brief pause at the top before you plunge back down again.

Doctors will do further tests today to find the source of an infection that continues to plague Zach. Laura said her son's liver may still be compromised, or it could be his pancreas that's the culprit.

A community responds

The family has been buoyed by an outpouring of support from the Kent community for Zach’s recovery.

"It’s just been unbelievable how kind and generous people have been," Laura said. "I’ve got people walking my dogs, cooking food, cleaning my house, adding Zach to prayer chains. Many others have sent cards with money and gift cards for gasoline."

Marlow said administrators have been just as supportive, with Zach getting separate visits from Superintendent Joseph Giancola, Assistant Superintendent Tom Larkin, Roosevelt Principal Roger Sidoti and assistant principal Dennis Love.

Long-time Roosevelt teacher and coach John Nemec, who has had Zach in classes, has been supportive since the day of the accident. Laura said Nemec called immediately after hearing about the crash and drove her and Zach's sister to the hospital.

Since then, Nemec has visited Zach numerous times, talks with Marlow every few days and serves as the school’s liaison to the family.

Zach’s hospital room is decorated with a huge wall poster covered in messages of love and support from Roosevelt students and teachers. Two homemade posterboard-sized cards signed by countless friends dwarf the scores of other cards on display.

One particularly touching story played out at , the Kent salon where Laura works as a stylist. Laura said a stranger walked in and handed her an envelope. When asked who she was, the woman gave only her first name and said she is a Roosevelt mom.

The woman left, and Laura opened the envelope to find $125 in cash and a $100 gas card. She said the accompanying note was signed "Mothers of children in Kent."

Encouraging whispers

Family members were hopeful to speak with Zach once doctors weaned him from sedation drugs and removed his respirator. Instead, they were faced with yet another scary scene: their loved one in full-body restraints.

“They were trying to wean him off the sedation drug and he was confused and didn’t know where he was," Laura said. "Eventually they had to restrain his whole body because he kept trying to pull out IVs and get out of bed. It was a vicious circle because they had to keep sedating him."

“The worst part is that when they first took the respirator out, he kept trying to talk but it was just a whisper," she said. "It seemed like he was babbling. He did say ‘crash’ and when his father came in the room he said ‘Dad.’ But now he hasn’t talked in the last three or four days."

On good days, Zach responds to doctors' prompts to squeeze their hand, move his leg or give a slight nod when questioned.

But not every day is a good one.

“Yesterday was a bad day, when it was kind of disappointing,” Laura said Wednesday. “He was just staring at me, not nodding or anything. By the time I left he was moving his lips a little like he was trying to talk, but I can’t get excited about it because then something will go wrong."

While at work Thursday afternoon, exhausted, Laura said she was planning a quick evening trip to Akron because Zach’s father had called with encouraging news.

“He told me (Zach) was difficult to understand, but that he said ‘I love you’ and ‘I’m thirsty.’ I wasn’t going to go back tonight, but I really want to hear him talk,” she said with excitement in her voice.

Laura believes her son will likely spend another couple weeks at Akron City before he is transferred to the traumatic brain injury unit at Edwin Shaw Rehabilitation Institute in Cuyahoga Falls.

"In my mind, I’m 85 percent sure he’ll be fine in the long run," Laura said. "He’s a strong person."

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