Road to Recovery: WF father speaks about son who was hit by car
Tragedy stuck the Klein family when 13-year old Taren was hit by a car while riding his bike.
WEST FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) - Tragedy stuck the Klein family when 13-year old Taren was hit by a car while riding his bike.
The accident happened near his family’s home in front of Cash Wise in West Fargo.
Tonight, Valley News Team spoke to Taren’s dad John-Paul who says the family is still unsure when Taren will come back home.
“The problem with traumatic brain injuries is that everyone is different. They stressed that right from the get-go that they can’t let us know ‘Hey this is going to be 3 months’ then be done, right. You can go off other people’s recovery time, but that really doesn’t mean anything,” says Klein.
However, the 13-year old has been making lots of progress in his road to recovery.
“It’s really nice to see he’s actually in there, right. With the TVI sometimes, they can’t really express themselves the way you want them to,” says Taren’s father.
Taren has started to be able to answer yes-or-no questions, follow people around the room with his eyes, and he even was able to give his mom a hug.
“It had been a month and a half, it had been awhile since we had heard anything out of him. They finally cut the bulb in the tracha down to where air could actually hit his vocal cords. He got kind of upset about some things, and you could actually hear him crying. It was just one of those steps you put in your back pocket and you’re like ‘Okay, we’re moving forward’,” says Klein.
Pending a negative COVID-19 test, on Monday Taren and his mom Cassie will be heading to Gillette Children’s Hospital in St. Paul for rehab
“It’ll be Cassie and I kind of switching on and off to do that while the kids stay up here for school,” says the father of 4.
Klein says the community and his kids’ schools have been very supportive--Raising $50,000 so far for the family via GoFundMe.
“That’s been probably one of the biggest helps--the friends and family, the outpouring support from the community. That’s the reason we’ve kept the updates going. I wish I had time to respond to all of them, but I can’t thank everybody enough,” says Taren’s dad.
The family typically posts updates about Taren on Facebook and GoFundMe, but say they’ll be switching over to a CaringBridge website soon.
For those who would like to donate, here is the link the link to Taren’s GoFundMe.
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