I suspect Chuck can empathize with you in the parent role, Andrew, as
can I in the recovered against the odds patient role. In that role I
wish that my nearest and dearest had *not* been dissuaded by the High
Dep Unit staff from taking photos of comatose yours truly. Wandering
out of the ward? Check. Making inappropriate comments about fellow
patients? Check. Trying to pull out chest drain, catheter? Check. It
sounds like things are headed in the right direction, with good
support. Hang in there.
Piers (GCS 8 but survived)
On 21/01/2012, Andrew Fildes <afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Good luck. My experience in the last week has been positive so I hope it
> rubs off.
> Must be a #2 son thing.
> After nine years of riding 42km per day (26 miles) to and from work, my
> second son Chris was hit by a delivery van on Friday afternoon 8 days ago.
> The screen in the emergency room displayed a grim brevity - 'Cyclist vs.
> Truck - high speed'. The impact was a straight 80kph (50mph) from behind.
> He was quite astonishingly lucky - four broken ribs and a punctured lung,
> three cracked vertebrae and a lot of scrapes. Helmets are compulsory here,
> thank goodness. But head-butting the scenery at that speed has implications
> - in this case some contusions of the forebrain. He was agitated and
> confused going into intensive care and lost three days memory. His post
> traumatic amnesia is classified as severe but he seems to be coming out of
> it very well. His level of fitness is extremely high and that may have saved
> him. In fact he rather annoyed them in the intensive care unit by getting up
> and going for a stroll. Being confused, he tended to get lost.
> Last weekend was possibly the worst of my life. I feel like we've dodged a
> very large bullet indeed. I'm still a bit shaky thinking about it. He's now
> in a rehab centre and because of his earlier tendency to wander, they've put
> in a locked, high dependency ward for a few days at first. I hope he takes
> time to take a close look at the others in there - the serious brain injury
> patients. And thinks what might have been. He should be over the short term
> memory problem quite soon. I hope.
> One of the best things I did was to take a few pix each day - #1 son in the
> UK said he thought it was in bad taste but was seriously relieved when he
> saw the smile on day three and promptly posted it on his Facebook wall.
> Small gallery here -
> http://www.pbase.com/afildes/chrishospital
>
> We live in a semi-rural area but the police were there in five, the
> paramedics in eight and he was inside one of the best trauma units in the
> country in 80 minutes - and it's nearly 50k away. Any further out or any
> sicker and they'd have used a helo. Car registration here is quite expensive
> because it includes compulsory accident insurance - all medical costs are
> covered and they'll pay him 80% of his average pay for the forseeable
> future, even if you're a cyclist or pedestrian. It's a decent system. There
> were nice touches like the paramedics waiting to talk to us at the emergency
> bay about the circumstances. They were quite surprised that he survived at
> all.
>
> Oh - and yes, the driver stopped. He's has been charged. Careless driving
> occasioning GBH. He'd driven for four hours across the state without a break
> and didn't see him. The cop I spoke to later was a little underimpressed by
> that.
> Andrew Fildes
> afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
>
> On 21/01/2012, at 4:40 AM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
>
>> Well, once again the call goes out for prayers, positive energy, good
>> thoughts, etc., for No. 2 Son, Benjamin, who will be admitted to the Maine
>> Medical Center on Sunday, and on Monday will undergo an aerobic valve
>> replacement.
>
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>
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