A Night of Fun For Va. Family Ended in Horror

Andre Hollis, 41, a defense industry lobbyist, didn't go to the fireworks show that night because he was waiting for a neighbor's lost luggage from the airport. When a neighbor called telling him there had been an accident, he never fathomed that it involved fireworks.

Hollis said he later learned that an errant shell had bounced off one of his neighbors, who was sitting with the Hollises, and then exploded behind them. He said his wife told him "she remembers white light, a blast; then she's lying on the ground, and her arm's on fire. She turns to check on our sons, doesn't see them, then, blackout."

Max had been sleeping in her lap while their 7-year-old son, Alex, was nearby. Hollis said he thinks his wife absorbed most of the shell's force and protected Max with her body. A doctor who treated Kathryn told her husband that her wounds, which included a shattered arm and shrapnel near her waist, resembled damage inflicted by a grenade in Iraq.

Hollis sped to Inova Fairfax, arriving before the ambulances. Max was in the first one, but no one knew where his wife and older son were.

Hollis soon learned that his wife, a stay-at-home mom, had been flown to Washington Hospital Center and that Max had internal bleeding on the brain. He was placed into a medically induced coma and flown to Children's Hospital, where doctors began waiting to assess the damage, Hollis said.

"For Max," Hollis said, "his physical injuries will heal. But there's going to be some significant emotional trauma. He has nightmares. He said he's scared and doesn't know why." His wife faces "physical therapy issues, probably some psychological issues and certainly many surgeries." His older son wasn't seriously hurt but witnessed the explosion.

Hollis said his family members were hardly the only ones hurt.

"There's a lot of parents looking at a lot of scared kids right now," he said. "They're hurting, too."

Andre Hollis said he thinks that the battalion chief's presence and his ability to instantly summon a helicopter might have saved Kathryn's life.

"Had they not been there," Hollis said, "there would have been at least one funeral. I owe them so much."