monday december 19

if you are reading this, it is because you are a friend or family member of my dad's. on friday, december 16, at about noon, my dad was hit broadside by a large SUV on independence pkwy, less than a mile from the house, while on his way to his weekly blood work appointment. we haven't gotten to speak directly with the police since the ER, but we do know the jaws of life were necessary to get him out of his car, and that it took almost 20 minutes to do so. the other people were completely unharmed, and drove away. Clearly the car that hit him was speeding. the speed limit where it happened is 30. the trauma doctor told us that there was no way the damages could have been sustained if the other car was going the speed limit. but that is all another matter.
dad's injuries are: 6 fractured ribs, a complex (type C) pelvic ring fracture (the ortho doc said they counted at least 20 pieces) i believe his hip is also fractured. these injuries caused internal bleeding. one of the ribs punctured his left lung and caused internal bleeding as well. he has a chest tube to drain this blood out of his body. he also has a large hematoma on one of his kidneys, which has essentially shut it down. his other one seems to be fighting the good fight, but it is still of course a significant concern.
his blood pressure has been low and unstable from the blood loss. as of last night, the bleeding seems to have slowed to a trickle and that let his blood pressure come up and it seems to be stabilizing. his heart rate is high, and his heart beat is irregular. he has had a pacemaker for about two years, and it has been reprogrammed, but i guess his heart is just, well, dealing with the catastrophic injuries by freaking out.
he is conscious, and has been the whole time, some of you have spoken to him on the phone, or come to visit. this is awesome, and appreciated. he is totally cognitively intact, sarcasm and all. this is also awesome, at least to us. there are a couple of nurses that may not be so overjoyed at this, but oh well.
last night, he became really disoriented and confused but that is primarily the dilaudid, and the effect of having been flat on his back for two days without being able to see around him. i took pictures of the wall behind his bed last night to try and convince him that there was not, indeed, a living room behind him where he and JKC had been watching football earlier that day.
so, today, the plan is, if he is stable, for the trauma surgeon (who, by some stroke of luck or divine intervention, depending on your personal paradigm, is a complex pelvic ring fracture specialist) to attempt a minimally invasive (rather than an "open") reconstruction of the pelvis if dad is medically stable. this is yet to be seen, since on saturday morning, when they began sedation to attempt to put him in traction, he had a cardiac arrest and had to be resuscitated with CPR. holy shit. it was propofol that they gave him, so naturally i called him MJ all day.
so, check back here, i will update this regularly. or, you can text me. calling is the least likely way to get me when i am in the hospital. i am also updating with a bit less detail on facebook. i know how awful it is to not know what is happening, so if you are worried, please use this blog to keep up if you can't reach me personally. calling my mom is truly useless.
we love you all and are grateful for the thoughts and prayers. dad loves that he has so many people that care, we read him the facebook threads and he gets a real boost from it. also, not too sure about today, but visiting hours are 8 am to 6 pm, then 8 pm to 10 pm. he is in room 22 of the critical care unit at plano medical center. text me if you want to visit and i will let you know if he is visitor-ready.
talk soon.