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Kasen Conn

Kasen’s Survival Story

I share this story with a grateful heart because my baby lived & with as much detail as I can bare, in hopes that it brings awareness & could save others from dealing with the trauma & agony these types of accidents cause.

September 19th, 2023 was just like any other day for us. Kasen & I woke up, ate breakfast, snuggled on the couch, & waited for his daddy to get home. My husband worked night shift so he would get home around 10-11am most days. That day we had planned to drive out to my family’s property and put out some corn for the deer, on the way home we realized, to our horror, we were covered in seed ticks. When we got home, we stripped in the yard, & ran inside to wash off. Kasen sat on the couch in his diaper enjoying a snack (luckily, he was tick free) while his dad & I washed the ticks off of us. We went back outside to spray our shoes with a water hose, while Kasen & I were doing this, Drew (Kasen’s daddy) decided to back his truck up so we could take my car to our hair cut appointment (which we were starting to run late too), he quickly hopped in, threw it in reverse & started backing up. I look to my side & see Kasen isn’t standing there anymore, I take off running toward the truck… “please God no, don’t let him be behind the truck, please God”. As I got to the side of the truck I saw my baby, my 28 lb precious baby who calls his mommy “my bestest fwend” was face down, not moving & covered in blood under the front passenger tire of a 5,000 lb truck. He looked crushed, I thought for sure he was dead.

I screamed a scream I could never recreate, the kind of scream that haunts a person. My husband looked at me with a look I’ve never seen, a look of fear, horror, & desperation. He began to scream “NO NO NO. PLEASE NO” as I motioned for him to pull his tire off our only child, our baby.

I scooped Kasen up, blood was pouring on my phone as I called 911. I began to pray... “Please Jesus save my son, please lord, I will live for you, & tell story of what you did”, “PLEASE LORD, PLEASE!!” I pleaded. Kasen was conscious & talking “mommy I can’t see, mommy I can’t see anything”, I thought for sure he was blind, his head was misshapen & swelling, there was blood everywhere. He had gone to the bathroom on himself, I was covered in my child’s blood & feces.

I was so scared that I wouldn’t survive if I lost him. Neither would his father. How could we live without him? Our entire lives revolve around him. The ambulance soon arrived, as well as my parents. My wonderful, brave dad, was the only one who could stand to get in the ambulance to be with him. I couldn’t see him like that, I couldn’t watch them work on him. I was terrified he would die in front of me.

He was airlifted 2.5 hours away toa trauma one children’s hospital in St. Louis. A team of 30 doctors & nurses were waiting on him, ready to try & save his life. The long, grueling ride there was mostly silent, my dad & I up front, my mom & husband in the back. I prayed silently the whole way…”please lord I’m begging.”

Around 1.5 hours into the drive, my phone rang, a St. Louis area code, I held my breath as I answered, it was his trauma surgeon, ”I have Kasen here with me, he’s awake, he will have a long recovery, but he’s going to make it & go home with you.” I put a thumbs up to everyone in the car, they were staring at me, nervously, hoping for good news. “Thank you, Jesus, thank you” I began to pray.

When we arrived at the hospital, we waited for Kasen to make it to recovery room so we could see him. I still had his blood all over my face & hair. He was so very swollen, bruises all over & he a had neck brace on. I excused myself to the bathroom to sob, I hadn’t cried yet. I was in true shock.

Kasen suffered a broken pelvis, orbital bone, jaw & chin. Road rash on 70% of his body (he was still just in diaper when he was run over & our drive way is rough concrete), bruised lungs & a large deep gash on his stomach. He was essentially ripped open by the sharp edge of our driveway. Ten days & 3 surgeries later, we walked out of the hospital with our baby, my walking miracle.

My husband’s 2019 Dodge Ram 1500 is equipped with back up sensors & a camera, but that’s simply not enough. There’s a human factor, always check your surroundings, if you’re backing up with children around ensure that you can see them & that they’re with an adult. Talk to your kids about car safety. I never did. Him getting run over was a huge fear of mine, choking & being run over, my 2 biggest fears. I was always with him, I held him in parking lots, I hold his hand if a car is backing up in our driveway, until one day I didn’t, I got distracted. Maybe if I had talked to him about the dangers of vehicles, he wouldn’t have been comfortable to hear the truck start up & continue trying to catch a bug that was under the truck. I should’ve never made playing in our driveway a normal thing.

We thank God that our son is alive, we can’t put into words the joy we feel to have him. I urge you to practice safety when operating your vehicle, especially large vehicles with large blind spots. An accident like this changes your life & it changes you. Take the extra second to make sure your child is secure. Talk to your children about car safety. Get a backup camera for extra security, it’s all worth it.

This has been a difficult journey for my family, but God has turned this tragic accident into a beautiful story. A story of survival & miracles. Because of this accident my husband & I gave our hearts to the Lord. We cherish every single moment with Kasen more than we ever did before. I give God all the praise, for the strength to share this story, for my son’s life, for the wonderful doctors who cared for him, for my family, for everything.

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