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Note: This story is part of a week-long series on Primary Children's Medical Center's 90 year history of contribution to the community.SANDY — For the Park family, this year marks the 18th since their son, Benjamin, passed away. Despite his death, the Park family is appreciative of the care he received at Primary Children's Medical Center.
"If there was a tree to climb, he was in it. If there was a pile of dirt to jump on, he was jumping on it. If there was a new friend to make, he made it," said father Stewart Park. "He just seemed to live every minute of life to its fullest."
At the age of 10, Benjamin's life, the one he so fully enjoyed, was cut short. It all started on the night of the Pinewood Derby.
"He came home one night. He said ‘I just have a really bad headache. It really is killing me,'" said Spring Park, Benjamin's mother. "Then he started showing some flu-like symptoms. It happened on a Thursday and by Sunday he was pretty sick."
After a trip to the Insta Care that Sunday, the Parks asked a good friend and pediatrician to examine Benjamin again.
"(The doctor) said ‘Benjamin, can you touch your chin to your chest?' Which is a typical question that doctors will ask," Stewart Park said. "And Ben tried to touch his chin to his chest, and as soon as he made that attempt he said ‘Ow, it hurts.'" His parents rushed Ben to Primary Children's Hospital where a spinal tap confirmed spinal meningitis. Two days later, he would lose his ability to speak.
"He had to get up in the middle of the night and I got up with him, and he spoke to me. And that was the last time he ever spoke," Stewart Park said.
For the next eight days, Benjamin tried to fight the meningitis in a medically induced coma, but eventually he would lose that fight.
They told us that it was time to take him off, to bring him out of the induced coma," Spring Park said. "So they asked us if we'd like to step out of the room because it's not really fun to see them doing all this stuff."
"When we left the room, it literally had not been minutes before the nurse just (came) running down the hall to us and said ‘He's turning blue, you need to come quick,'" Stewart said. "That's a difficult sight. That's a difficult situation to be in as a parent, to sit at your child's bedside and watch them take their final breath."
Over the years the Park family has reflected on what happened to Benjamin. Stewart even carries a Pinewood Derby weight around in his pocket as a reminder of Benjamin's life. Though his death is heartbreaking, the family now uses the experience as a reminder to live life to its fullest. They feel Benjamin is doing the same.
"He probably thought ‘You know, I've done this Earth stuff, I'm ready to move on. My family will be OK.' And we are because I think he's never left us. He's totally blessed out family."
The Park family continues to donate time and money to Primary Children's Medical Center because of the wonderful care they say their family received while Benjamin was hospitalized and even after he passed.
