MIRACLE ON THE 7TH FLOOR: THE RAY CHILDREN'S RECOVERY

The halo over Ebonee Ray's head is not the reason the nurses at St. Louis Children's Hospital nicknamed her "the angel on the seventh floor."

Two weeks ago, Ebonee broke her neck in the same place actor Christopher Reeve did. Often the result is death or paralysis. But 10-year-old Ebonee not only survived without paralysis but did so with a kind of preternatural grace.

"She never cried and never panicked," says her mother, Diane.

Ebonee was one of three members of the Ray family hurt in a traffic accident Nov. 4 on Nash Road. Albert Ray had just watched his 13-year-old son David's football game and was driving his other two children, Ebonee and Travis, to Rhodes City, the truck stop on Nash Road where they go to play video games. Albert tried to pass another vehicle that Saturday afternoon. When he realized he couldn't make it, he slammed on his brakes to keep from hitting an oncoming car.

The pickup truck went out of control and slid down into a ditch embankment, the impact wrenching the cab from the frame. Albert's memory of the following minutes is hazy, although he remembers a man who tried to help him get out of the truck and who told him his son was dead. Travis was not dead but had a punctured lung, a broken arm, a broken nose and did not regain consciousness for three days.

Her neck and an arm broken, Ebonee got out of the truck and ran up the hill yelling, "Help, help!" She found it at a nearby trucking company, where someone had already called 911. Fortunately, someone there made her lie down and be still, because in high spinal cord injuries even more damage by can done afterward by moving.

All three were taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital initially. Ebonee and Travis then were flown by helicopter to St. Louis Children's Hospital. A friend drove Diane to St. Louis. Albert remained at Southeast Missouri Hospital with severe bruising to his chest and lacerations across his chin and kneecap.

At St. Louis Children's Hospital, the physician who examined Ebonee "didn't know why she was alive," Diane recalled.

'A little prayer circle'

Dr. Doug Carlson, an emergency room physician who was not one of those who treated Ebonee, says that in a few such cases the break doesn't cause pressure on the spinal column or bruising and the spine isn't cut.

"She is lucky that she didn't have any bruising, that she was well taken care of to prevent that and that her spinal cord was kept in place," Carlson said.

Fourteen-year-old Travis was working on his own miracle on the same seventh floor. Doctors told Diane he'd live if he made it through the first two hours Saturday night. He had a blood clot in his head, and they were worried he might incur brain damage.

It was hard to find a place to touch Travis, she said, for all the tubes in him. Both Ebonee and Travis were on respirators.

Diane was surprised to find herself in a waiting room with parents of children from Chaffee, Mo., and Marion, Ill., and even the parents of Ebonee's friend Chlarissa, who lives two doors down and took ill the week before. "We formed a little prayer circle," she said.

Diane and Albert had to decide whether doctors should operate on Ebonee or trust in the device called a halo, which prevents her neck from moving while her bones heal. Surgery was quicker but also carried a greater risk of Ebonee dying or becoming paralyzed.

The only time Ebonee cried was when the doctors put the halo's bolts in her head. "It scared me when they told me it would be in my skull," she said.

All three members of the Ray family were discharged from the hospitals five days after the accident.

The report by the Missouri Highway Patrol says Albert was traveling at a high rate of speed. He was ticketed for careless and imprudent driving. According to the highway patrol, no one in the truck was wearing a seatbelt.

Albert says the accident occurred because the car next to him speeded up when he tried to pass. The driver of the car did not stop to help.

The 1993 truck was equipped with airbags that did not inflate, Albert says. Examination of the truck afterward determined that the passenger-side airbag was not loaded, he said.

Two days after the accident, the Rays received their bill from Cape County Private Ambulance for $1,209. They haven't yet gotten the tab for the helicopter transfer and the life-saving treatment at St. Louis Children's Hospital. The Rays aren't ready to think about that cost. They're just thankful for the compassion they were shown there.

The family has no medical insurance. Diane, who does housekeeping, said they dropped their insurance because it was taking more than half her paycheck and because the children never get sick. Albert's physician has told him he will not be able to return to his job as a trucker for six to eight weeks.

But Diane believes things happen for a reason. "This has made our family stronger and closer," she said. "To look at this you'd say we're down, but not to see the things we're doing for each other."

In need of a hug

In the Ray family home, certificates from Blanchard Elementary School awarded Ebonee for her scholastic abilities and good conduct are on display. Her teacher, Janet Wigfall, says she's bright, conscientious and responsible, and already making plans to go to college.

Ebonee's fifth-grade classmates cried when they heard about her accident. Every week, they send her a packet containing cards and stuffed animals. They phone to help keep her spirits up.

In answering questions about the accident, Ebonee's normally outgoing personality seems a bit withdrawn.

She will be tutored by a homebound teacher until she can return to school in three months. She gets physical therapy three times a week. She won't be jumping rope, playing soccer or going hunting or fishing with her dad at least until then.

But Carlson says the prognosis for such cases is good. "She might have a little bit of stiffness in her neck, but if she is not having an neurological problems, we wouldn't anticipate any."

Travis can go back to Schultz School next week. "I really don't want to go back that soon," he says, managing a smile.

After Travis finally regained consciousness at the hospital, one of the nurses handed him a board to write on, and Diane asked if there was anything he wanted. He had difficulty writing.

After awhile, they figured out the words Travis was trying to write.

They were "Will you hug me?"

How to help

Anyone wanting to help the Ray family with medical bills can do so by contacting Red Star Baptist Church at 335-3381.