A 7th-grader named Dean Thomson was badly injured in a sledding accident.
We tried tracking down this item through the University of Chicago Hospitals and received the following response:The e-mailed message does sound correct. A child by that name was brought here in mid-January to be treated for blunt head trauma and other injuries related to a sledding accident. He was discharged a few weeks later and returns periodically for follow-up treatment.We don't know Dean's current condition, but we expect someone will fill us in shortly.While I'm on the soapbox, though, I'd like to mention that the authors of these prayer requests for injured children seem to be following a disturbing trend of including more and more explicit, gruesome details in their messages, as if they hope to go to the head of the prayer line by impressing us with the severity of their loved ones' medical problems. I understand that for many people dealing with seriously ill or injured children, typing out such messages might be a cathartic means of dealing with tragedy, but I think nearly all of us who are amenable to taking a few moments out of our busy days to offer prayers for sick or badly-injured children don't need to know details about avulsed eyeballs and severed lips to be moved to action. One of the wonderful aspects of prayer is that it has no limits - we need not compete for it, because there are plenty of prayers to go around. Just let us know your child is ailing and needs our help - we'll offer our prayers and leave the details to God and the doctors.
in shortly.While I'm on the soapbox, though, I'd like to mention that the authors of these prayer requests for injured children seem to be following a disturbing trend of including more and more explicit, gruesome details in their messages, as if they hope to go to the head of the prayer line by impressing us with the severity of their loved ones' medical problems. I understand that for many people dealing with seriously ill or injured children, typing out such messages might be a cathartic means of dealing with tragedy, but I think nearly all of us who are amenable to taking a few moments out of our busy days to offer prayers for sick or badly-injured children don't need to know details about avulsed eyeballs and severed lips to be moved to action. One of the wonderful aspects of prayer is that it has no limits - we need not compete for it, because there are plenty of prayers to go around. Just let us know your child is ailing and needs our help - we'll offer our prayers and leave the details to God and the doctors.