Meet Nicholas Mehlman

Cabot, Arkansas

On July 10, 2008, 8-year-old Nick Mehlman of Cabot was with his family when the car they were in was hit head-on by another vehicle.

Nick was removed from the car and raced to a local hospital, where doctors stabilized him and sent him to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Once Nick arrived at ACH, doctors immediately began working to correct his traumatic brain injury. For the next three days, Nick was kept in a medically induced coma, and each 24-hour period was critical.

“It was very difficult for us because we couldn’t be up at the hospital all the time with him, due to our own injuries from the wreck,” says Nick’s mother, Vanessa. “It was hard on Nick, as well, but he had the best staff in the world taking care of him, so it eased our mind.”

Once Nick’s brain had stopped producing fluid, doctors began to slowly awaken him from the coma. He spent 13 days in the Donald W. Reynolds Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at ACH before he was sent to the rehab unit to continue his recovery. Nick began therapy to help him relearn things like speaking and walking. He stayed in the rehab unit for three weeks, until he was sent home to finish his recovery.

Because Nick was unable to attend school regularly, teachers in the ACH Hospital School helped set him up for homebound learning, where a teacher visited his home twice weekly. Now, Nick is back at school full-time.

“As well as he is doing now, no one would ever know that he suffered a traumatic injury,” says Vanessa. “Nick says that if he ever gets sick again, Arkansas Children's Hospital is the only place he wants to go. He felt safe and comforted while he was in the hospital, and so did we.”

For Nick’s father, Scott, who has worked in the IT department at ACH for almost 3 years, the experience gave him a new perspective.

“It’s humbling to go from being a member of the staff at the hospital to suddenly being the parent of a patient in PICU,” says Scott. “It was neat to see the computer equipment I support used on my own son.”