One Year Later.. What I Thought Would Happen... and What Actually Did
- Reasa Selph
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
One year ago today, The Dallas Morning News shared our family's story.
Just four days later, it was on the front page.
At the time, I thought the story was about an eleven year old boy who almost died.
A year later, I realize it is about something much bigger.
It is about what happens after an ordinary family experiences the unthinkable and asks one simple question:
"What happened to our child?"
Watching our son fight for his life was the most terrifying experience of our lives.
There are no words that can truly describe standing beside your child's hospital bed, wondering if he will survive.
Nothing compares to that.
I pray that nothing ever will.
When Nicholas finally came home from the hospital, after 34 days, I thought our focus would be helping him heal.
Helping him recover.
Helping him regain the childhood that had been stolen from him.
I never imagined we would spend the next several years fighting for answers, transparency and accountability.
Or that searching for those answers would fundamentally change how I viewed the healthcare system I had trusted my entire life.
Over the past year, I have read thousands of pages of medical records, court filings, motions, expert reports, and legal arguments. I have learned more about our legal system than I ever wanted to know.
But the biggest lesson had nothing to do with the law.
It had to do with trust.
I always believed that if serious questions were raised about the care of a child, a hospital's first priority would be understanding what happened and asking how another family could be spared the same experience.
I believed transparency would come naturally.
I believed protecting future patients would be a shared goal.
Maybe that sounds idealistic.
But I genuinely believed it.
That belief shaped how I viewed hospitals my entire life.
Over the past year, I learned that the legal process can look very different from what families expect when they are simply searching for answers.
Instead of asking what happened to a child...
...the conversation can become whether the parents somehow should have done more.
Instead of asking what could be learned...
...the conversation can become whether publicly issued government findings should even be discussed.
Instead of asking what has changed to better protect the next child...
...the focus can shift to defending the institution.
That may simply be how litigation works.
But it was not what I expected.
As parents, we did exactly what every parent has been taught to do.
We trusted our instincts.
We took our son to the emergency room because we believed something was wrong.
If taking your child to the hospital is not enough...
What more is a parent supposed to do?
That question has stayed with me every single day.
I expected to spend the years after Nicholas nearly died helping him heal.
I never expected to spend those same years defending our family for taking him to the hospital in the first place.
This journey has never been about revenge.
It has never been about headlines.
It has never been about trying to destroy anyone.
It has always been about one simple hope.
That another family never has to ask these same questions.
I still believe in good doctors.
I still believe in incredible nurses.
I still believe hospitals save lives every single day.
But I also believe trust requires accountability.
Families deserve honesty.
Families deserve transparency.
Families deserve confidence that when serious questions are raised, the focus remains on learning, improving, and protecting the next child.
One year later, Nicholas continues to move forward.
So do we.
Not because this has been easy.
But because if sharing our story helps one parent trust their instincts...
If it gives another parent the confidence to speak up when they know something is wrong...
If it encourages one healthcare provider to pause and ask one more question...
If it helps protect even one more child...
Then every difficult day has had a purpose.
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us, encouraged us, reached out, and stood beside our family over the past years.
We are still here.
We are still fighting.
And we are still asking the same question we asked on day one.
How do we make sure this never happens to another child? ❤️
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