Mother Of Shaken Baby To Speak At Ladies Event In Elgin

The daycare provider said 15-month-old Chase wouldn't "wake up."

Chase's father, Scott, immediately contacted his wife Jill, who was working in the pediatric unit at Faith Regional Hospital in Norfolk, and called 911. She heard the Lifenet helicopter take off.

Jill Junck of Randolph will be the featured speaker at "Da Ladies Nite Out" in Elgin on Wednesday, April 8. The event will be held in the Elgin Knights of Columbus Hall. Doors open at 6 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. Only advance tickets will be sold. The cost is $30. Tickets may be purchased at Dean's Market, Lordemann Insurance, The Elgin Review or from any Elgin Knights of Columbus member.

Jill will share her story of how her son recovered from "Shaken Baby Syndrome," and how humor and faith helped their family. 

On March 19, 2008, Chase was flown by helicopter to Mercy Medical in Sioux City, Iowa, where he underwent a CT scan and was rushed into surgery.  

"He was in surgery by the time we got there," Jill said. "He had a craniectomy with evacuation of clots. Essentially, they removed half of his skull to provide room for the brain swelling that would ensue." 

She said doctors gave Chase a 20 percent chance of survival "if everything went perfect from that point on, which was a lot to expect." He was in PICU  at Children's Hospital in Omaha for the next couple of weeks on a ventilator. Chase moved to "stepdown" for a week before transferring to Madonna for intensive rehabilitation. 

"He showed up there without eye movement, couldn't hold his own head up, no speech, had just started swallowing again, but still had his feeding tube, couldn't sit up on his own, and had no mobility," Jill said. "Within his first week of rehab, he was sitting up and holding his head up." 

Chase's eating began to improve and all of the words he knew came back in one day.

"He did absolutely excellent in rehab!" she said.

They moved back home on June 10, 2008. 

"He gained a little brother, Owen, that December, which was the best thing for him," Jill said. "He did so well with rehab, he was one of the 2010 Goal Award winners for Madonna and got to meet and hang out with Larry the Cable Guy."

Although Chase hasn't made a complete recovery - he is considered legally blind due to retinal hemorrhaging when he was violently shaken, cannot use his left hand, limps on his left side and has had two cranioplasties - his family feels abundantly blessed.

"He is now a second grader in Randolph," his mom said. "He has lots of friends and is very independent considering he only has one hand to use."

And, Chase talks about how he saw heaven - twice. 

"He always says he saw it twice," Jill said. "He did code in the OR twice during his emergency surgery." 

Chase tells them all the kids are with Jesus there and "they are so happy." 

"He still says he wishes he could have stayed because it was so nice there," she said. "He talks about Jesus being at the hospital with him many times to make him feel good. He says Jesus washed out his eyes and that is the first time he could see. I asked him what he saw. He said he saw Jesus and me. He said I was wearing blue. I couldn't think of what I was wearing the first time he opened his eyes so I asked him if it was my shirt. He said no that the blue was on my face. He was right. It was flu season and Children's required everyone to wear a mask. Our masks were blue. He was only 15 months. He shouldn't have known things like that. Or been lucid enough to process it. He also has said how much I cried in the hospital, and that I didn't need to because he was fine because Jesus was with him." 

Scott and Jill Junck now reside in Randolph with their sons, Chase, 8; Owen, 6; and Emmett, 2.

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