MOUNTAIN HOME — For Tiffany Acuna, success for her paralyzed son is measured by the little things.
A stronger voice.
An involuntary movement of leg muscles.
A smile.
At first glance those details may not seem like much but for Acuna they represent hope. And hope, she’s learned, is to be gripped with both hands.
Acuna’s son Kase, 5, was seriously injured in October in a two-vehicle car crash just a short distance from the Malad Bridge on U.S. Highway 30. Kase, along with his sister, Alley, sat in the back of Acuna’s 2019 Ford Explorer that was totaled in the crash. Alley escaped the crash with minor injuries.
Kase, though, suffered life-altering injuries. In the collision, Kase broke his back and suffered three spinal injuries. He is paralyzed from the chest down and spent weeks in a Boise hospital on a breathing tube.
After he was stabilized, Kase was transferred to a Salt Lake City hospital for physical therapy. At the Utah hospital, Acuna was also taught how to care for her son, adapting into a role as a full-time nurse and a mother.
The accident changed Acuna’s life.
“I struggle with it every single day,” she said. “I don’t think there isn’t a day where I haven’t cried.”
Acuna, a former Hagerman resident, is now living in Mountain Home with her boyfriend, Bruce Folk. Kase returned to Mountain Home in early December from the Salt Lake City hospital. Since then, Bruce and Tiffany have focused on Kase, learning how to navigate a new life.
“He’s eating better, and his voice is a little stronger,” Acuna said.
Folk said he also noticed improvement since Kase returned from Utah.
“He’s doing pretty good, but he still doesn’t have the use of his legs. We’re trying to keep his morale up as much as we can, but it is hard,” he said.
Folk said since the accident he and Acuna have “learned to kind of be traveling nurses.”
The daily reality
of recovery
Acuna’s time is now devoted almost entirely to Kase. In Utah, medical staff taught Acuna how to change Kase’s catheter and dole out the seven different medications he must ingest each day. Most everything Kase could do before the crash he can’t do now.
So, Folk and Acuna take heart in the little things.
“There has been a little bit of involuntary movement (in his legs) when he is sleeping but when he wakes up it isn’t there,” Folk said. “We have hopes it will come back. But it hasn’t.”
Each day Acuna must check an array of different elements to Kase’s condition. Because he is paralyzed, for example, “he doesn’t have a strong cough,” Acuna said.
That means she must watch him closely, so he doesn’t develop pneumonia.
“I check his blood pressure constantly,” she said. “He just got over a urinary tract infection. There is just so much I have to worry about. They did train me but I’m not a doctor.”
Kase also suffered a mild to moderate concussion in the crash, leaving him with no memory of the three weeks before the accident. Through the lens of a 5-year-old, he processes his condition differently than adults.
“He thinks that his legs just have to grow back,” Acuna said.
While he’s slowly beginning to grasp his injuries, the hospital experience has left lasting trauma.
“He is terrified of going back to the hospital,” she said.
Every day Acuna rubs Kase’s leg muscles. When she first saw movement in his legs, Acuna said she was excited. Her excitement was soon tempered by doctors.
“They did not act like it was a big deal. He has no control over it. His muscles just spasm,” she said.
Acuna said Kase does, however, tell her he occasionally feels pain in his legs and feet. His descriptions of the pain could be good news, she said, though doctors don’t believe he will ever walk again.
“Sometimes I feel really alone,” she said. “I don’t know if anyone wants him to get better as much as I do.”
This month Kase will start full-time physical and speech therapy. Meanwhile, though, bills are piling up for Acuna. Before the accident she and Folk worked together on his flooring business. After the accident they were unable to work. Folk said he is just now getting back into a work schedule as a contractor.
Acuna was able to capture some insurance money from the accident and she used a portion of it to buy a used car. She used the rest of the money to pay off three credit cards she used to pay bills when Kase was in the hospital in Boise and Utah.
Facing financial challenges
A GoFundMe page set up after the accident generated about $7,000, Folk said. That money, he said, was critical early on after the crash. That money, though, is now gone.
Acuna said most of Kase’s bills are now covered by Medicaid, but not all. Items such as wipes, sippy cups, a special wheelchair and a new bed for Kase are Acuna’s responsibility to pay.
Realistically, she said she isn’t sure when she could go back to work full time because she must care for Kase.
Acuna said she’s worked her entire life.
“I’ve always provided for my own children. So, this is very scary,” she said.
Acuna said it is “hard for me to ask for money.”
“So, I really don’t know what’s next,” she said. “Every day I am going by the seat of my pants.”
Acuna said she is also struggling to get into a rental in Mountain Home.
“They want to see a proof of income but for the last few months we’ve been in a hospital,” she said.
Acuna said she intends to try to apply for Social Security benefits for Kase to help with costs, but that, like everything else now, is a move laced with hope.
Still, Acuna said she is grateful her son survived the crash.
“He’s made some progress. He’s not so fragile. But he has a very long-term diagnosis and a very bad injury,” she said.
Acuna, who was an assistant manager at in Twin Falls until last year, said she clings to hope for a better future. She also cherishes her time with Kase.
One night recently Kase wasn’t feeling well.
“He asked me to hold him,” she said.
So Acuna lifted her paralyzed little boy out of his bed and held him close. She did that for a long time, listening to his breathing, until he fell asleep.