Celebrating Kennedy’s survival
Change and growth continued to be the dominating news in Pea Ridge in 2019. City officials approved numerous requests for new developments, annexations and zoning changes. Two city heads — police chief and fire chief — were named. New members were appointed to the Planning Commission and Library Board. A new splash pad was opened. The city sponsored Second Saturdays throughout the summer, encouraging community involvement.
Voters approved additional revenue for the School District to construct a new high school and ground was broken on the school building property.
“We saw continuing growth and we’re continuing to improve,” Mayor Jackie Crabtree said, reflecting on 2019. “We’re just so grateful for everyone who has helped make it a good year.”
And, as the end of 2019 nears, one Pea Ridge family has a special reason to be grateful.
Nearly a year ago, on Jan. 11, 2019, young Kennedy Allison, then 14, collapsed at the end of class, was revived by teachers and the school nurse and taken by ambulance to the hospital.
Allison, 15, daughter of Keith and Jennifer Allison, was soon taken to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, where, after many tests, had a defibrillator implanted. She was back at school a week later, smiling,
crying, hugging and thanking all who had a hand in her survival. She and her parents presented gifts to her saviors and received gifts from many in the community during a special ceremony Jan. 18.
“I don’t really remember what happened,” Kennedy said. “I don’t remember the trauma that everyone else experienced … I appreciate that I’m still here.”
Jennifer Allison, Kennedy’s mother, said: “It is so hard to believe that we are almost to the one year anniversary of Kennedy’s sudden cardiac arrest incident… It has been on my mind a lot lately as we approached Thanksgiving and now with Christmas around the corner.
“It’s hard not to think about how different this year could have been and get emotional and overwhelmed with how thankful and blessed we are to still have our daughter with us and pretty much living a normal life. Kennedy is doing well, she still has no recollection of the event and says she doesn’t ever feel any different although she continues to have extra beats in her upper chambers that her cardiology team regularly monitor,” she said.
“After her six months of restricted activity, she has been completely released and continues to have good results from her EKG and echocardiogram checkups. While we may never understand why this happened as she is considered idiopathic which basically means there is no known medical reason as to why she had sudden cardiac arrest and went into VFIB, we are so thankful that it happened where and how it did to save her life. We are forever grateful for the heroic efforts of nurse Thetford,
coach King, Mrs. Trotter and the first responder/ EMT crew as well as the compassion and care we received at Northwest Medical during this trauma. We are so thankful for Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and all the medical teams that treated her especially her Electrocardiologist group that placed her ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) to prevent another SCA in the future and allow her to be a normal teenager. Lastly, we’d like to publicly say ‘Thank You’ to this community for all the love, support and prayers as they truly helped us get through this most unimaginable event.
“You always hear that babies are a gift from God,” she said, “but this Christmas I am tearfully overjoyed by the gift my daughter’s life and all the blessings this miracle has provided.”