COLERAIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — The family of 2-year-old Brody Allen, who died in October of brain cancer, is pleading for prayers, but this time for Brody's older brother, Andrew "Drew" Allen.
Andrew Allen was crossing the road Monday night when he was struck by at least one vehicle close to his home. Multiple vehicles were involved, and police are investigating what happened. Nobody has been charged, and drivers are all cooperating, according to police.
Brody captured the country's attention when his family, realizing the boy's rare brain cancer meant he would not survive until Christmas, put up a tree and decorations, with neighbors following suit in the Cincinnati suburb of Colerain Township.
In a Facebook post, Todd Allen, the boys' father, said Andrew was in critical condition, adding his situation was "very critical."
“He has a very serious life-threatening traumatic brain injury, damage to his heart and lungs, multiple compound fractures to both of his legs, damage to his kidneys, a small laceration to his spleen, a broken shoulder blade, and a dislocated/broken collar bone,” the father wrote.
Doctors have placed Andrew Allen in a “medically-induced paralysis,” and he is heavily sedated, receiving constant dialysis because of damage to his kidneys. So far, he has been too unstable to undergo any surgeries, the father wrote.
“Eleven days ago we buried our youngest son Brody,” Todd Allen wrote. “Today Shilo and I are again in the hospital facing the very real reality that we may lose another son. Our grief and pain is simply indescribable right now. We desperately need your help. Your prayers helped carry us through Brody’s fight with brain cancer. They continue to support us as we grieve his passing just a few days ago. Today as I sit at Andrew’s hospital bedside I know that I am not strong enough to do this on my own.”
Later in his post, he urged, “Please, if you’re inclined, pray for Andrew’s healing and recovery. I don’t care what faith, language, religion or perspective in life you come from.”
“Your prayers, thoughts and well wishes carried us and more importantly, I believe, gave Brody the strength and a little extra time, to live his last days to the fullest with absolute joy,” Todd Allen continued in his post.
Springdale Road is a two-lane road, with center turn lanes in both directions at Niagra.
Colerain police spokesman Jim Love said the family is suffering tremendous grief. Even before Andrew Allen’s severe injuries they were so overwhelmed by grief they took a cruise to try to decompress: “They had to come back early from the cruise to deal with this.”
“Yesterday we even closed down Springdale Road to re-enact the whole thing, see if we can’t figure out what’s going on,” Love said. Because Andrew Allen’s in a medically induced coma, “at this point, we do not have anything from him, as to why he was crossing and whatever else.”
“Until we can talk to him, it’s pretty much an open investigation,” Love said, adding he did not know how many vehicles hit Andrew Allen.
“We can talk to the people that were on the road, and we have,” Love said. “And we went back, and we recreated the scene to find out what we think happened with the vehicles, and we have done that. So we’ve done what we can do at this point until we can actually talk to him.”