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"Seth (above) doesn't see himself any differently today than he did before the accident. He's gone back to regular life."--Lynn Bergman
In An Instant
After Seth Bergman was thrown from his ATV, U-M helped him get back to living
For many of us, snow days were the sources of some of our best childhood memories. For Seth Bergman and his family, January 11, 2006, was a snow day they definitely will not soon forget.
Adventurous 12-year-old Seth couldn’t wait to get out into the snow that day. He went riding on his family’s three-wheeler, doing donuts on the ice and having a good time. But out on a fresh layer of snow, Seth got in trouble and was thrown from the vehicle.
Although he blocked out the accident, Seth remembers walking home a quarter of a mile for help.
“I couldn’t feel anything. I just knew I had to get help,” says Seth.
When Lynn Bergman heard a knock at the back door, she sent Seth’s older sister to see what her son was up to. She heard the screams and grabbed the phone immediately.
Seth’s face had been gashed from under his right eye, across his nose to his left eye and down his cheek. Lynn said you could see his jaw bone, and he no longer had a nose because it was so smashed.
He was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, but it was soon determined that Seth should go to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to get the care he needed.
“I remember the U-M Survival Flight nurse Chris saying he would take care of Seth like he would his own son. It was comforting to know that he was in good hands, since I couldn’t fly with him,” says Lynn.
The Journey Back
When the Bergmans arrived at the University of Michigan Trauma Center, Lynn says the staff member at the front desk had been alerted and was awaiting their arrival, and shortly thereafter they were greeted by a patient advocate.
“Our patient advocate gave us status updates on Seth while all the specialists continued to look him over. Four doctors came into our waiting room to tell us what they found, and one physician said to us, ‘Your son is okay. He’ll still be your son. He’ll have scars, but he’ll be okay.’ They knew how to comfort us quickly, and they were there to answer all of our questions.”
Seth needed reconstructive surgery on his broken nose. His jaw, broken in two places, needed to be wired shut, and he would never get back the six teeth that went missing from his smile. Remarkably, Seth didn’t have any other bruises or scratches or any brain injuries from his crash.
“You strike up a conversation with everyone when you’re sitting around in the hospital room, and everyone is so encouraging—even the woman changing the wastebasket was comforting. I remember going through the line at the cafeteria, one of the servers recognized me, asked me how things were going, and told me everything would get better,” says Lynn.
After a week of monitoring and bedrest at Mott Children’s Hospital, Seth could get up and move around. During one of his walks, he found one of many activity rooms set up by the Child and Family Life Department at the hospital.
“He spent all day in there playing different games and just feeling back to his old self. It made him feel like he could get back to living again,” says Lynn.
The only thing left on Seth now is his scar, which can be made less noticeable in the years to come.
“Seth doesn’t see himself any differently today than he did before the accident. He’s gone back to regular life. And even though the doctors at U-M were against it, he still rides his three-wheeler, he’s still adventurous, but now he always wears his helmet and he rides more carefully.” Lynn says that other parents in their community in Beaverton, Michigan, use Seth as an example to reinforce helmet safety.
“We’re just so thankful that Seth was brought to UM,” says Lynn. “I was very happy to know he was going to the best place.”
