Colton Linton was one day away from turning 6 months old when his parents placed him down for a nap that changed everything. When little Colton fell asleep at a friend's house, his parents, Paige Ferguson and Blake Linton, made the infant a nest out of pillows on their friend's queen-sized bed, and sat outside the room in case the baby awoke. Big bed, tiny baby — many of us have used this tactic in the past when you're at someone else's house and the baby falls asleep. But Colton's parents ran into the room when they heard a thump and crying, as the baby had somehow managed to fall off the bed and onto the floor.
Like any mom would be, Ferguson was immediately worried about her son's health, but she told Babble that at first she thought he seemed to be okay. "He was crying, which meant that he was alert, and after we calmed him down and he smiled at us, I really felt relieved,” she said.
Colton had a bump on his head that was swelling outward. Although both Linton and Ferguson had heard the old wives' tale that a bump swelling out meant things were okay, Ferguson listened to her mom intuition when it told her to take the baby to the hospital to be looked over just in case.
Not long after the family arrived at the hospital, Colton started to vomit. A CT scan revealed the fall from the bed had fractured his skull, causing internal brain bleeding. "I vividly remember holding Colton up to vomit, while kneeling on the floor trying to calm him down, and the doctor walked in," Ferguson said of the awful event. "He told us that Colton did have a fracture, and there was some blood on his brain. And it's crazy because even in that moment, I thought he would be okay. I thought 'OK, they can fix this. It's going to be okay. He's tough. He's got this.'"
As a team of doctors and nurses worked to save her son, Ferguson shared a dire warning on Facebook, stressing the importance of having children checked out after head injuries, even if they appear to be fine. "Please take any hit to the head seriously. I can't say this enough," she wrote. "My heart is broken. Our child is laying in front of us yet we miss him so terribly. I need you to hear me … get your kids checked out! Please. The old tale of 'if the bump is outward you're safe' is NOT true."
Since its posting in March, the post has been shared over 18,00 times.
Ferguson says it was hard not to play the "what if" game, and blame herself for what happened to Colton that day. "I kept thinking of what his little body was going through and that this was my fault," she explained to Babble. "I should have stayed home, I should have brought his Rock 'N Play, I should have let him sleep in my arms." Her supportive husband told her she had to forgive herself and what happened wasn't her fault. "I was crying, hugging Blake, and pleading with him to forgive me. He kept telling me it wasn’t my fault, but I couldn't wrap my head around it. Such a small fall and he's hurting so bad."
Colton battled bravely, even as his tiny body went into cardiac arrest. An MRI showed brain damage, and he spent weeks in the hospital, undergoing surgery. At one point doctors told his parents his injuries could leave him in a vegetative state.
Linton and Ferguson started a Facebook Group called Colton Linton Updates as a way to both keep friends and family in the know about Colton's progress, and spread awareness to parents about the seriousness of head injuries.
Colton's proven he's a fighter. After a month in the hospital, relearning how to breathe on his own, he came home. He takes medications for seizures and is fed via a feeding tube and doctors are still waiting to see what lasting damage there is to his brain, as the injury happened when he was so young. Still, he's truly defied the odds.
His mother is grateful for her little superhero, and trying to move on. "Colton is our world; our life," she said. "We wouldn't in a million years have done anything that we thought could harm our child. But I am finally letting go of some of the guilt about the accident, and even though I know people will judge me, I'll take it all, if by sharing Colton's story, we can save even one life."
Her hope is that by reading Colton's story or seeing his sweet smile, other parents will be extra cautious when their own kids have a head injury, and will think twice before putting their baby down for a nap on a bed, even if you think they're not going to move. "Please do not leave your baby on a bed unattended, no matter how safe you feel they are; not even for a split second," she wrote. "And if your child sustains a bump to the head, be safe and get them evaluated. Demand a CT. Don't listen to old wives' tales that tell you if they will be fine or not; let the doctors do that. Colton cried, and even smiled, but he wasn't fine."
