Darnal Mundy
In August 2015, the Mundy house was rocked by a piercing sound at 5:50 a.m. Darnal Mundy, then age three, had climbed onto a chair, reached into a drawer in search of an iPad and instead found a gun. He accidentally shot himself once in the head. The shot startled his parents out of their sleep and they found the boy lying on the floor.
His father swooped him into his arms and ran out of the door. His mother followed with the car keys in hand. As she sped through the Miami streets, Darnal’s father cradled the crying boy. They arrived at Ryder Trauma Center within minutes.
“We jumped out of the car, ran in and were met by doctors and nurses,” his mother, Dorphius Jean recalls. “They grabbed my son and I kept yelling, ‘please save him, please save him’.”
Thanks to the medical expertise of the medical team at Ryder Trauma, pediatric neurosurgeons and rehabilitation doctors, and therapists at Jackson Rehabilitation Hospital, Darnal survived – and left the hospital a few months later walking and talking.
“But I had a lot of confidence in Ryder Trauma – I knew that they save a lot of lives there.”
Now an active five year-old, Darnal loves watching basketball. He enjoys his Pre-kindergarten class, especially coloring, writing, and being read to.
His mother says she often thinks about how lucky her family is that Darnal received immediate, expert care from the Ryder Trauma team.
“His recovery has been pretty awesome,” she said.
