Posted on 11/07/2014 3:01:52 PM PST by WhyisaTexasgirlinPA
Arrowhead (John) fell off a 20 ladder at work, onto his head, and has a severe brain injury!
Broke all the bones in his face and skull, broke his shoulder blade and some ribs.
His last post was 10/20 in the morning. He fell about 2pm that same day and was LifeFlighted to the hospital; then, after about 6 hours of surgery, he went directly to ICU. It was touch and go for days in critical condition.
After 2 weeks in ICU he has been transferred to a Specialty Neurological Rehab center in Austin, as of 11/3.
He can move his arms and legs, so no spinal injury, but he is not cognizant. Sometimes he can respond to can you squeeze my hand?, sometimes not. His daughter is getting ready to go back home.
The nurses are calling them every day. Small improvements are noticed, such as he sat up for 10 seconds today, but no one has a prognosis. Brain injuries heal how they heal, when the heal, if they heal....3 to 6 months at least.
PRAY HARD, please!!!! And spread the word to your prayer lists.
Don’t know how this got lost, but what great news! So glad he recognizes his FRiends!
Arrow, you need to get better so you can go fishing! Those crappie aren’t gonna catch themselves! ;)
I agree...it is wonderful news that his brain is making connections to FRiends.
thanks!! continuing to pray.
We will be praying for a full recovery and perseverance to get there.
UPDATE from her Monday email....
Dad is doing well - or, as well as can be expected. They have downsized the trache tube in his throat to a smaller one, and because of that he is able to kind of "talk" a little bit. If he is awake enough, the speech therapist says he can say things like "yes" and "ok," but not much past that. When he does try to talk, his speech is more mumbled and garbled than anything, and our understanding is that maybe more speech will come with time.
The nurses say that when they try to get him out of bed into a chair, he really tries to help, and still does about 25% of the work for them. Other than that, they are going to do PT and OT a little more often and we will just see from there! I am going back on Sunday for the Thanksgiving week, so I will have a better update after I see firsthand.
And I will pass on the notes that you sent me from the FReepers!
WOW! This update sounds very heartening to me! Praise God and all of his nurses and doctors and dearest Arrowhead too, of course.
Continued prayers for him and his brave family and for everyone here.
A hard slog but he is fighting!
Thank you for this update, small steps forward and forward until full recovery. God bless.
Sounds like great news. Give it time. Keep up the great work.
Additional prayers sent up..
Thanks for the update, I will post it to the Weekly Garden Thread on Friday. Please tell him that we are praying for him and his family.
Encouraging news. More prayers on the way.
It’s good that he is making some progress, that’s encouraging.
Thank you for the update.
Good news! I’m glad to see he is getting so much support from family and friends, that helps a lot.
Awesome news! Hang in there Arrowhead!
FReepmail
Those are all very excellent signs!! His desire to talk and to help demonstrates a good level of alertness. It is also good he can control the functions of transiting (getting in and out of a chair) even if weak.
Its a long road, but it least it appears to be new asphalt!
Continued prayers!
Praise the Lord!
Additional prayers lifted for him and his family.
The Lord is slowly rebuilding him.
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