Mom's long vigil to aid hurt son comes to an end
Author: Joe Simnacher, Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News

Dallas recorded its last traffic fatality of 1986 this week.

Carl Wayne Banno, 26, died Tuesday in Hyannis, Neb., of complications from injuries he suffered Jan. 24, 1986.

That is the day his car overturned on a residential street just off Samuell Boulevard, south of R.L. Thornton Freeway.

"Carl was on drugs and alcohol,' said his mother, Kathey Daniel Osentowski. "We know he was on one or the other that night. He had also been to one of the clubs and had been served even though he was 18. There were just a lot of bad things that contributed to it.'

Ms. Osentowski devoted herself to caring for her son for the last seven years of his life, working with him as many as 15 hours a day. He had recovered enough to speak and laugh. But on Tuesday, her hopes for his recovery died with him in her Nebraska home.

Ms. Osentowski hopes her son's tragic experience with drugs and alcohol motivates other teen-agers to avoid a similar situation. But she said the last few years with her son meant much more to her than that.

"These handicapped children are so special they don't need to be looked down on or pitied at all,' she said. "They have something to contribute to us people who think we have it all. I think that's the most important thing.'

On the night of the accident, Mr. Banno had just given a cook from his family's restaurant, Banno Brothers' Seafood on Greenville Avenue, a ride home.

The senior at R.L. Turner High School had been drinking at a Dallas club before giving the co-worker the lift, but it isn't known whether drinking contributed to the accident, said his brother, Thomas Banno.

What is known is that the youth spent the next seven years in pain, trying to recover.

His car had a T-top, which severely injured his chest. His head hit the pavement with tremendous force, and it took several hours to free him from the wreckage.

Surgeons at Parkland Memorial Hospital had to remove more than half of the youth's brain, his mother said. He also required open-heart surgery.

Because of the extent of his injuries, Ms. Osentowski said, she did not know what to do or how to pay for it.

"You do whatever you have to do,' she said. "You beg, borrow and steal. I was in shock for basically the first three years after the accident.'

Mr. Banno's recovery began at Parkland, where he was in a coma for three months. He was then moved, still in a coma, to the Baylor Rehabilitation Center, where he spent 10 months.

Although he was making some progress, he had to be moved out of Texas for lack of state money to cover the $800 a month needed to feed him through a tube, his mother said.

In the first 2 1/2 years, the family went through $2.5 million of insurance money, she said.

Ms. Osentowski, who is divorced from her son's father, worked hard to keep her son out of a nursing home.

"I quit my job and sold all of my furniture and jewelry,' she said. "I sold everything I owned and slept on the floor for two years.'

Ms. Osentowski's former husband, Sammy Banno, also praised her devotion to their son.

"No one could ask for a better mother than her, when it came to a situation like that,' Mr. Banno said. "It was devastating. We went to the hospital every day for six months and then rehab for 10 months. I had to go back to work, and she stayed with him. She took control and did a fabulous job.'

In addition to the trauma of the situation, Ms. Osentowski had to wrestle with moral questions.

"It's a touchy thing,' she said. "Do you try to keep them alive? If you know they are going to be that bad, do you keep them alive?'

The National Head Injury Foundation helped mother and son move to Minnesota, where Mr. Banno was placed in a special rehab-nursing home to help him recover.

"It wasn't like a Texas nursing home,' Ms. Osentowski explained.

She said she worked with her son 15 hours a day, teaching him to chew bubble gum, re-learn his name, the alphabet and numerals.

The work began to pay off.

"You could tell him jokes, and he would laugh,' she said. "About two years ago, he started talking.'

He first said "Jesus,' said nothing more for a year and a half, then said, "I love you.'

"He understood everything,' his mother said. "He couldn't initiate a converstation on his own -- you would have to ask him a question -- but that in itself was a blessing.'

During the long ordeal, Ms. Osentowski, who was adopted, was searching for her birth mother. She found her in Nebraska, and she and her son moved there.

It was in Nebraska, Ms. Osentowski said, that she learned her son had regained the ability to read. While waiting for X-rays one day, he suddenly said, "If you are pregnant . . . '

"I just said, "What?' He then said, "X-ray' ' and Ms. Osentowski noticed the sign warning pregnant women about the dangers of X-rays.

The recovery battle took a decisive turn last summer, when Mr. Banno began to get blood infections from the various tubes supporting his life. Serious deterioration began in July. Three months ago, recurring bouts of pneumonia set in.

Ms. Osentowski's finances also gave out a year ago, and she filed for bankruptcy, she said.

Memorial services for Mr. Banno will be at 11:45 a.m. Monday at Northwest Bible Church on West Northwest Highway in Dallas. Services will also be conducted in Hyannis on Friday.

In addition to his mother, his father and his brother, who lives in Carrollton , Mr. Banno is survived by a sister, Kim Ohland of Mount Dora, Fla.
 

The Dallas Morning News - Friday, June 4, 1993
Submitted by Edward Lynn Williams