Family Pleads Case for Medical Funding With Personal Story

An innocent accident left her in a coma for four weeks—but now Bridgewater resident Ariana McGuire and her family are using her fate to hopefully help other children get the care they may need.

McGuire, 8, and her family traveled to Washington D.C. during the last week in July to speak to legislators against plans to cut funding for doctors to get the training they need to care for children who are suffering injuries from accidents—because she knows how they can save a life.

In July 2010, McGuire, then 7 years old, was at a friend’s house for a playdate when she went inside to get something to drink. When she walked back outside, she walked into the line of an arrow shot from a friend’s bow.

“It struck her between the bridge of her nose and eye,” said Mitch McGuire, her father. “Directly after that, the arrow went deep into her brain. Ariana pulled the arrow out herself and then passed out."

His daughter, McGuire said, was taken to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, where she was in a coma for four weeks and suffered a major stoke that left about three-quarters of the left side of her brain dead.

Within four weeks, Mitch McGuire said, his daughter had undergone 12 surgeries

“She could not walk, talk, eat or hold her head up,” he said, adding that she was released from the hospital and sent to Children's Specialized Hospital in September 2010 where she stuck with in-patient therapy until switching to out-patient in November. “They did not expect her to make it through the first night.”

But during the rehabilitation process, which still continues to this day, the doctors have been focused on helping his daughter regain her life back, McGuire said.

“She has learned to eat, talk and walk again, although she still has paralysis on the right side of her body,” he said. “She is not back in school, and she attends full-time out-patient rehab.”

The rehabilitation, McGuire said, is five days a week with cognitive, speech, occupational and physical therapy, as well as tutoring for school.

And McGuire said he owes everything to the people who saved his daughter—and he would hate to see funding cut to provide for other children needing these kinds of services in the future.

“As a father, I went through every emotion possible, watching her lie there, and when there is nothing you can do it is the most painful thing a parent can ever go through,” he said. “To watch her grow and recover has been a reality check, it has restored my faith in God and has given me a newfound respect for the medical profession.”

The purpose of going to Washington, through an invitation from the Children’s Hospital Association of America McGuire said, was to put a face to the people the funding has helped in an attempt to convince legislators not to cut funding to organizations that train the doctors, therapists and other medical professionals to perform the surgeries and work with children who have been in accidents and suffered as Ariana McGuire has.

“The legislators got a chance to see these people who the money helps,” Mitch McGuire said. “My big thing was we’re spending money on going green because it will save the future, but if we don’t give the money for people who will occupy our future, what’s the point?”

McGuire said the association approached his family and asked them to participate along with about 30 families around the country whose children have suffered as his family has. The McGuires were the only ones from New Jersey.

“We were going to meet with senators and congressmen of New Jersey to be able to put a face to this situation, to show who those proposed budget cuts could affect,” he said. “Our goal was to meet with these representatives and let my family tell our story on how we benefited from the services of the children’s hospital and give them a reality check that cutting the budget affects the children.”

“I think it was very affective,” he added.

McGuire said they met with Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Sen. Robert Menendez, who agreed to sign Ariana McGuire’s cast.

“Out of all the things you ask, she asked Sen. Menendez to sign her cast and he said he would be honored,” Mitch McGuire said.

But meeting with Rep. John Runyon was the most exciting, McGuire said.

“Runyon is a stern man, a big guy, a former NFL player and he was very stone-faced,” he said, adding that all the children had little cards with their pictures and names on them. “Everyone was intimidated and sitting on edge and my daughter walks around the corner and says, 'here’s my card so you can remember me.'”

“And the giant man turns into a gentle giant,” he added. “So Runyon went into a drawer and pulled out his rookie card from the NFL and signed it for her.”

Aside from the opportunity to meet with the representatives and speak about the importance of funding the programs to teach the medical professionals, McGuire said they had the opportunity to go sightseeing, and attend a dinner party with the other families that included an appearance from Disney Channel star Miranda Cosgrove.

“It was so real to meet the other families and amazing to see them,” he said. “I never want anyone to go through what we went through, but it is good to know we are not alone. There are other people who share the same concerns and same emotions when it comes to a loved one.”

“It really was one big support group, and one of the things where we were able to take a breath and say we are not alone,” he added. “It makes you stronger and there is a stronger sense of commitment to the cause and children as a whole.”

McGuire said he and his family—which includes wife Luciana, and Ariana’s twin sister Briana—have lived in Bridgewater since 2004. And after the arrow incident, he said he is extremely grateful to the emergency services in Bridgewater.

“The Bridgewater Police Department and the Bridgewater EMS were very professional, and, prior to even getting my daughter to the hospital, they were phenomenal,” he said. “They were the ones who got her there and kept her alive until they could get her to the hospital.”

And McGuire said he is grateful to everyone who cared for his daughter and are continuing to work to give her her life back. He hopes going to Washington will help in the fight to keep funding for these medical professionals.

“Between Robert Wood Johnson and the Children’s Specialized Hospital, they are an amazing group of people and I could never repay them for what they have done for my daughter and for us,” he said.

McGuire said he knows his daughter may never be the same again, but she is working hard to get her life back.

“She’s been doing amazing, but she wants to go back to her old school, [Adamsville],” he said. “The other day, [with her birthday coming up], she said she wanted her life back, wants to be able to run, she doesn’t want to wear a brace and she wants to play soccer again.”

“I believe that’s truly from the mouth of babes,” he added. “For her to recognize that, she can accomplish anything she wants.”