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LEHI — It is said throwing snake eyes is a bad omen, and while looking into her son's eyes after he was shot with a BB gun earlier this summer, Amy Sorensen could not help but agree.
"To me, I was not looking at my son," Sorensen said of the moment. "It was like looking into a snake eye. It was bright red, fierce. I could tell right then it was going to be a fight."
The family was in Provo Canyon for a weekend campout and were shooting at a red Solo cup in a tree. Sorensen's son, Drake, had been in the tent, but had left without anyone realizing.
"Why'd you hit me?" the 9-year-old asked, stumbling toward his mother. Sorensen said she initially thought he was joking, but when he fell, she knew something was wrong. When he reached her, his eye was "bright red — the brightest red I have ever seen," but by the time Sorensen reached her husband a short distance away, the eye was black.
"Inside, there was all this chaos, but as a mom, my instinct was to hold it together," Sorensen said. "He was losing it. He kept saying, ‘I can't see; I can't see.' It was really intense. As a mother, it's your worst nightmare."
A trip to the emergency room found that the bullet had likely not hit Drake's eye head-on, but 1 millimeter lower would have meant certain blindness. Drake would have a misshapen pupil, glaucoma and a cataract, but he would not be blind. It would be a long, painful road to recovery, though.
There to help Drake through his surgeries was a bracelet his grandmother had made him to remind him that someone was thinking of him. With a feather, a bell and other charms, it was as unique as the boy's experience, and it would be the start of a project that would get the family through on of the biggest trials they would ever face.
"Drake really liked the bracelet, and we thought, ‘Why not make them for other kids?'" Sorensen said. "When kids go to the hospital, they could get a bracelet and know someone else is thinking about them."
So far, there are about 150 bracelets waiting to be delivered to Primary Children's and Utah Valley Regional Medical Center. Boy scout groups, friends and neighbors have all helped with the bracelets, which take more time to make than Sorensen initially realized.
"We didn't want any two to look the same, because everyone is different and is going through a different situation," she said. "Just like Drake — we haven't seen anyone else at the hospital who got shot in the eye with a BB gun."
Sorensen said her son has always been unique, but she is still trying to teach him that his eye, with its misshapen pupil, can be something positive, and already is to some people, like his little brother, who said his favorite thing about Drake is his "owie eye."
"He's always found himself by being different, and I'm trying to teach him that his eye can be what distinguishes him from everyone else," Sorensen said. "I tell him, ‘Let your eye be what makes you different.'"
It may be easier to get used to now that Drake is done with surgeries, for the time being. Having gone all summer visiting a doctor office every week and a half, it was a relief to hear the next visit need not take place for another two months. He got glasses that restore his vision, but it has been a challenge to get used to them, and taunting from classmates has not helped.
Sorensen said the worst of the physical challenges may be behind them, but the emotional challenges are going to be just as difficult to overcome. She said she did not realize just how much of an effect the accident had had on Drake until he had an anxiety attack one day at school after seeing a person in the doorway who resembled the family member who accidentally shot him.
Beyond the anxiety, the biggest challenge has been acceptance, Sorensen said.
"Drake is resilient — I wish I were as strong as he — but I think people hurt the most when they realize things will never go back to how they once were," she said. "Sometimes I see him looking at himself, waving his hand in front of his eye … he'll ask me, ‘Am I going to be blind?'"
"I never want to say no because I don't want to instill false hope, but I want him to stay positive."
She hopes there is a reason for all the things her son has gone through, but she tries to keep things in perspective.
"This is huge for him, but I know it could be worse," she said. "I don't think anyone would wish this on anyone else, but there are people out there going through much harder things, and my heart hurts for them."
Video: Devon Dolan
