10-year-old released from hospital after being rescued from house fire in Lee’s Summit

A 10-year-old girl was released from Children’s Mercy hospital after being trapped in her bedroom during a fire at a Lee’s Summit home.

And while little survived the single story, split-level house unscathed, Journey, 10, is expected to recover.

On Tuesday, her 20-year-old sister, Jerica, called the Lee’s Summit Fire Department to the home in the 800 block of SE 11th Street. Jerica thought Journey was at school, but after evacuating, she remembered classes were not in session for the day. Jerica called their mother, Jennifer Defluiter, panicking.

“The first thing I asked her is where’s your sister, and she just kept saying I don’t know. It was terrifying,” said Jennifer Defluiter, 50, who was in Overland Park, where she works as a speech therapist. “I got in my car and probably drove 100 mph just screaming, crying at the top of my lungs because as a parent your mind goes to the worst possible scenario.”

The flames had climbed too high for Jerica to run back in the house.

They were also too high for Journey to escape.

Journey called 911 from her bedroom and screamed for help until her lungs filled with smoke and she could no longer speak. The dispatcher stayed on the phone until Journey fell unconscious, said Jim Eden, assistant chief of the fire department.

When crews arrived at 10:29 a.m., they saw heat and heavy smoke from the upstairs kitchen pouring out of the house and unfurling down the hallway toward the bedrooms, trapping Journey on the second floor. Her door was closed, which Eden said helped keep some of the heat outside the bedroom. Journey was not breathing when firefighters found her. Crews continued to ventilate the house, extinguishing the fire by 10:58 a.m.

Journey was not breathing when firefighters found her and placed her in an ambulance. She suffered from a seizure on the way to the hospital. Her mother said when she showed up, doctors were unsure whether Journey would live. They were concerned about the lack of oxygen to her brain and the burns on her esophagus. Her lungs and vocal cords were coated in soot from the smoke, forcing doctors to put her on a breathing tube.

But after about 24 hours in intensive care, she was recovering. Defluiter remembered sleeping next to Journey in her hospital room, helping her sit up and walk to the bathroom.

“I kept telling her I would have gotten her out. I wanted to remind her that she’s my priority, and told her, please just know, that I would never leave you,” Defluiter said.

Journey was given occupational therapy, physical therapy, and psychological therapy before leaving the hospital on Thursday. She joined her mother and older sister at a hotel in the Country Club Plaza area. And though the family is happy to be together, Defluiter confessed that she was uncertain about the future.

“Last night, the girls came up to me and said you know what we just realized mom?” Defluiter said. “We’re homeless.”

At the moment Defluiter’s insurance is helping pay for the family’s hotel room. The kitchen and dining areas of their house suffered severe heat damage in the fire. But she said enough of the house survived the flames that she will be able to rebuild. She hopes the family will be able to move back in over the next few years.

Until then, they’re looking for temporary housing in Lee’s Summit so Journey can return to school. She is still undergoing therapy for her injuries. Flashbacks from being trapped in her room during the fire have been haunting her as she sleeps. And she’s mourning the loss of two of the family’s three dogs.

Community members have rallied around the family, donating toiletries, clothing, bedding and other necessities.

In a post on social media on Thursday, Defluiter wrote:

“I am forever grateful for the outpouring of help and caring we have received in the last 48 hours. I can never say thank you enough.”

A fundraiser was set up by a family friend, Casey Swadley, to help pay for Journey’s medical bills and other needs. As of Jan. 21, about $2,515 had been raised for the family through the GoFundMe page..