Girl, 5, who suffered spinal, brain injury in Aug. 3 crash home from hospital
Rowan Sciullo, the 5-year-old girl who suffered a broken spine and traumatic brain injury in an Aug. 3 crash in Connoquenessing Township, just wanted to eat pizza and see her cat after her 80-day stay in the hospital.
Brett Sciullo, her father, said he “was all over the place” bringing his daughter home from UPMC Children’s Hospital on Thursday, Oct. 22, for the first time since the crash.
After getting home around 1 p.m. Thursday, Brett said he just wanted to make his daughter comfortable in her own home again. Caring for Rowan is a new experience that requires patience for both of them.
“There is no ‘perfect’ with this,” Brett said. “There is no absolute or right way, it’s just doing it.”
Rowan was a passenger in a vehicle that struck a tree along Dick Road. She and her mother were flown to area hospitals.
Rowan also suffered tears in her colon and intestine among other injuries and required feeding tubes for nearly a month, according to a GoFundMe established to raise funds for her care.
Rowan said she was “a little bit sad” to leave the hospital after making friends with the nurses and doctors who cared for her, but she’s also happy to be home.
Her father said she underwent three surgeries, including a spinal fusion, and “had gotten pretty sick” in the hospital with a cold, which was exacerbated by her condition.
Rowan will permanently use a wheelchair following the crash. Brett said the only big accommodation he had to make to their home was adding a wheelchair ramp.
“It was kind of just cleaning up stuff and putting stuff away,” Brett said, besides adding the wheelchair ramp.
With the wheelchair, Rowan is very mobile, Brett said.
The GoFundMe for Rowan’s care has raised $44,273 as of Friday afternoon, which was helped by a spaghetti dinner fundraiser Oct. 3 at American Legion Post 117 in Butler.
“It was overwhelming,” Brett said about the turnout.
Brett said the GoFundMe will remain active with the funds raised at this point going toward Rowan’s continuing care.
