Bringing a son back

MONROE – Until last summer, the gray two-story house in the western end of Monroe was a place where Christian Balint enjoyed his mother’s teriyaki chicken wings and rice.

Julie Busch / The Herald Eli Schumacher, 9, hugs his 16-year-old brother, Christian, on Friday after Christian returned to the familys Monroe home for the first time since he was injured in an accident nine months ago.

It was where the honor student at Monroe High School studied on his bed and watched out for his younger brother and sister at night while his stepfather was at work.

It was where he hung out with his friends from the soccer team watching snowboarding and skateboarding movies.

Christian, 16, sat Friday morning in a wheelchair on the sidewalk, unable to go inside the house because it has no wheelchair access. Also, he may not have known that this is where he once lived.

“Hey, Christian, where are we at? Can you see we are at home?” his mother, Christine Schumacher, said to him.

There was no response.

Christian, who has been in a coma for about nine months after falling from a skateboard, came home for the first time in a van from a nursing facility in Woodinville, where he is undergoing rehabilitation therapy.

On July 23, Christian was skateboarding at his cousin’s house in Shoreline when his skateboard hit a rock and he was thrown off. He landed on his head and suffered severe brain and internal injuries, and went into a coma. He received surgeries and treatment at two hospitals before being moved to Woodinville.

Christian’s eyes blinked and moved Friday as family members and friends rubbed his arms, held his hands and touched his hair.

“Look at Grandpa, this way. Hey, buddy, c’mon,” said Richard Boswell of Allyn, trying to get his grandson’s attention.

Boswell went around behind Christian’s wheelchair and saw that the ventilator showed his oxygen level was at 97 percent and his heart rate was at 78, meaning the boy was breathing well on his own. Christian can do so for up to six hours a day.

“It’s tough just to see him. It’s hard to believe what happened,” Boswell said.

Doctors can’t tell whether, when or how much Christian will recover, said Schumacher, 37, who visits him several times a day.

Family and friends haven’t given up hope. They held a garage sale Friday in the home’s driveway to raise money so Christian can begin hyperbaric oxygen therapy, an alternative therapy not covered by the family’s insurance.

The therapy, in which a patient is enclosed in a pressure chamber and breathes oxygen at a pressure greater than one atmosphere, has a good record of improving brain-damaged patients, Schumacher said. Just to get the therapy started will cost about $3,000, and the family is looking for a wheelchair-accessible van to take him to the therapy sessions.

“It’s not a last resort. It’s another opportunity of helping him,” said John Schumacher, Christian’s stepfather.

During the fundraiser, the driveway was full of clothing, movies and CDs of “Live Strong,” the song a friend of Christian’s created after the accident.

Ian Jaap, 16, who played soccer with Christian, showed up in an orange T-shirt that he and other friends had made for Christian. Since the accident, Jaap said, he has tried to help the family, offering to baby-sit for Christian’s siblings, Eli Schumacher, 9, and Hannah Schumacher, 6.

“I just don’t know why it happened to him. It’s not just fair or anything,” he said.

Friends such as Jaap have helped the family during this difficult time, John Schumacher said.

“We’ve learned how to take it day by day. It’s one of those things you don’t know how to express. You just have to live with it,” he said.

About 50 minutes after his arrival at the home he grew up in, Christian left in the van for the Woodinville facility.

Eli hugged his brother.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, maybe?” Eli said.

Eli looked back at his mother, wondering whether he could visit Christian there.

“Yes, we’ll see him tomorrow,” Schumacher said.

Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.