Latest Edit: 10:51PM, Monday, January 1st, 2006.
My brother, Jonah, was just hit by a car. He's in a
lot of pain. He's on a backboard and has a neck brace. He has been
medi-vacced to a Children's Hospital.
PRAY.
My Cell Phone: 1-501-339-5691
My Mom's Cell Phone: 1-501-920-8195
My House Phone: 1-501-834-2795
My
mom and I have plenty of minutes now. Thank the generous people at the
school for that. Call whenever you feel you need to talk to me.
__________________
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
Jonah
has a broken leg, broken arm, broken collar bone, broken hip, a
skull-hairline fracture, and a concussion. The leg needs to be operated
upon ASAP. They are currently operating on his skull. There was
bleeding right above the brain (below the skull, but above the brain,
if that makes sense) and swelling as well. They started surgery about
2:45AM this morning, due to internal bleeding near the pelvis. They
think this is due to the broken leg (upper-thigh bone). He's been given
some blood and is currently on morphine and other drugs.
The
brain surgeons that explained what they were about to during the
operation sounded as if it was no big deal. Children's is one of the
world's best hospitals to be at, so if anyone can do it, it's them. And
with God guiding their hands, I'm confident he will be okay.
__________________________
Jonah's
brain surgery is finished and was a success. He is still sedated and
his leg will be operated on tonight, I believe. He is in stable
condition. I am going up to the hospital in an hour or so. I'll update
after I get back.
Jonah's leg surgery has
been set back. There is bleeding on the other side of his brain and
they will be performing the same procedure on that side of the brain.
There is no fracture on that side, so it is believed that the bleeding
is from trauma.
Jonah was just now taken
in for surgery (4:00PM). Mom was able to see him. She said he opened
his eyes and squeezed her hand before he fell back asleep, so he is
responsive.
______________________________
The
surgery was completed and the blot clot was removed. However, his brain
is swelling. They removed part of his skull so that the brain will not
be bruised during the swelling. The amount of swelling depends on how
hard the impact is. The section of his skull will remain off until the
swelling goes down. This could be days. He received more blood due to
internal injuries around the pelvis. They may operate on his leg
tomorrow morning depending on how his condition is. He will stay in the
ICU indefinately.
I am currently at home. If you were planning
on visiting me, thanks but no thanks. I need to be with my family,
alone, for a while. I'll update this with more news, but it probably
won't be for a while. We covet your prayers.
_________________________
Thursday, October 20th, 2005
The
swelling in Jonah's face has gone done, but the swelling of Jonah's
brain has gone up. We were told this is normal. They CT'd him again and
there is no new bleeding and there is no new swelling (aside from the
normal things). They okayed the leg surgery for 1:00PM today. I believe
this includes fixing the internal bleeding. He has no new internal
bleeding and they believe that, for the most part, it has stopped.
They
are slowly going to take him off sedation. He is going to stay on pain
meds, but they want him to respond to people and things. I'll update
you on how that goes after the leg surgery is completed.
_____________________________
Visitors are okay to visit now. All we needed was some good news, and we finally got it. Thanks for your prayers.
Jonah
has just went into surgery for his leg and his arm. They decided to go
ahead and take care of that. They said they can worry about his pelvis
later. This will be a long operation, as can be expected. I'll update
more when I hear more.
___________________________
Jonah's
leg surgery has been completed. It is a success. They just now started
on his arm. He will be in surgery for the next hour or so. I'll update
a little after that. Remember to check back.
___________________________
Jonah's
leg and arm surgery are both complete and are both successes. There
were no complications. He is out of the O.R. and now back in PICU.
_________________________________
The
small portion of the very bottom part of Jonah's lungs have collasped.
We were told this is due to laying down for 2 days and having his
breathing done by a machine and is not uncommon. He's not able to take
deep breaths, so that's the reason. They upped the pressure they're
putting in the lungs so that, when they take him off of it tomorrow
afternoon, he will be fully ventalated.
_______________________
More
of Jonah's lungs have collasped. They put another tube in his breathing
tube to up the circulation. They will slowly take him off of sedation
in order for him to start using his lungs and take deeper breaths to
ventalate the lower sections of his lungs. They said that your lungs
fill with mucus when you have a cold, but we can cough it up. He's not
able to cough it up so it's causing problems. On a severity scale of
1-9, he's a 5 at this point. He is also dealing with bed sores.
They
slowly weaned him off sedation so they could try to wean him off the
breathing tube. They switched to a new mode on the tube where it lets
him attempt to take a breath, but if he doesn't, then it breathes for
him. He attempted one breath when mom was in there, but when mom left
him, he didn't attempt anymore.
The pressure in the lungs needs to be about 8 for them to take him off the breathing tube. His is 4.
We covet your prayers.
________________
Jonah
earlier had a fever of 101.6F. With some tylenol, it was reduced. I
think it's probably a little over 99 right now, but I'm not positive.
His
condition has improved. They tried to take him off the ventalator again
a few moments ago. He became very alert and was very responsive. The
nurse said if she would have stood there and said "Jonah, breathe.
Jonah, breathe" then he would have breathed on his own. But, they would
like him to breathe more independently then that, so they will try
again tomorrow, but they were very positive about that.
________________________
Around
3 this morning (Sunday), they attempted to take Jonah off the
ventalator again. This time was successful. He is on a breathing mask,
which assists in his breathing, but he is breathing independently.
They
put a feeding tube in. Before, they were putting nutrients and such in
his I.V. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but my mom didn't seem to
concerned about it (which is something by itself).
____________________
I
went to see Jonah today. This is the first time I've seen him since
Friday. The swelling of his face has been tremendously reduced. His
body is not as swollen as it once was and he looks better all around.
He has a fever again, but they're giving him anti-biotics and tylenol for that.
He
has been very irritated earlier and has been thrashing about and
yelling about how his arm hurt (the broken one). They put him on a
different pain medicine (Advent? Something like that) as well as a
small amount of morphine, and that made a world of difference. He is
enjoying the first extended period of rest he's had since Wednesday
now. He's been asleep for about 3 1/2 hours now. Hopefully, he'll sleep
through the night.
His
oxygen level is 90%. That means that he is exhaling and inhaling about
90% of what he should, which is very good news. That means he is almost
ready to be removed completely from the breathing machine.
We appreciate all of the gifts, thoughts, visits, and especially the prayers. Thanks so much.
_____________________
Jonah's
breathing has worsened. They had to put him back on the mask (not the
ventilator). They suctioned his lungs because there was fluid in them
and they feared he'd catch pneunomia. He has not ran a fever today as
of yet, so that's good.
He
needs to be weaned off the machine as soon as possible, so that that
can take some of the things off of him, so that he will be less
agitated when he is not as sedated.
He
will be undergoing a CAT scan sometime this evening. They'll be looking
at his brain (to OK everything still) and his pelvis (so they can
decide what to do to fix that, when the time comes).
Prayers are still needed. Please do not let up. Thanks so much for all that you've done already.
___________________
Okay, I've got to correct myself. I said his oxygen level was at 90%. Well, that was wrong. His oxygen level in his blood
was 90%. Normally, a person's oxygen level is 93 - 99. So, it was low,
but not critically. His current level is 97%, which means his blood is
well oxygenated.
The breathing machine he was put on this morning was
providing 50% air capacity, meaning he was putting out 50% of what he
needed. Just a few moment ago, that number improved to 40%, meaning he
is now providing 60% of his own air capacity.
They are continuing the suction of the liquid from
his lungs. They do this every 4 hours. They are treating his
aggressively to bring him off of the breathing machine and to prevent
him from contracting pneumonia.
__________________
Jonah's becoming more
and more restless. They can't seem to figure out what to give him so
that he'll calm down. He still has a fever. They reduced the air
capacity to 35%, so that's good.
________________________
After receiving some
halodol, valum, and benedryl, Jonah has calmed down quite a bit. They
took the fluid drainer out from where a piece of his skull is, so
that's a good sign.
A strong Christian doctor assessed him and said that he's "turned a corner" for the better.
The CAT scan revealed
that his pelvis is broken in 3 places and will most likely require
surgery. They aren't sure where or when as of yet.
The man that hit Jonah
was not given a citation, according to the police report. We may have
to go to court to get his insurance to pay some of Jonah's medical
bills, which I'm sure are over $100,000 at this point in time. We are
in talks with a lawyer friend of ours and I'll probably talk to
Nathan's mom about it as well.
___________________________
Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
The
orthepedists said that his pelvis break will not require surgery and
will heal on its own. His breathing is much better. They are taking him
off the breathing mask for 2 hours at a time every 4 hours. If he
continues to do well, tomorrow they will take it off every 2 hours and
so forth. They no longer have to suction the fluid out of his lungs.
The doctors were very happy about his breathing progress.
__________
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
Jonah was just now taken off of the breathing mask
completely. He can now carry on conversations coherently. Mrs. Sullivan
came to see him and he knew who she was, and thanked her for coming to
see him as she left. They're thinking about taking the feeding tube out
tomorrow and start him on soft foods, but that's a maybe. He knew that
is was Thursday, but he thought it was the 19th or 20th. when the
doctors explained to him that he had been in the hospital for 7 days,
his response was "Holy crap!" He doesn't remember the accident, but he
remembers a conversation that took place before the accident.
Thanks for all the prayers and support you've given
to us. Keep praying though, as there is still need for it (medical
bills, physical therapy, casts, maybe wheelchairs, etc etc.)
_______
Sunday, October 30th, 2005
Jonah is doing amazingly well. I was
just with him. He's his old self. We talked about games, TV, computers,
and about the people at school. I asked him if he remembers a time he
and I went to Best Buy and he played the game on the computer that is
set up there. He said yes, described it, and when I told him I'd be
buying alot of those things for him when he gets home he was pretty
excited. He has gained his memory up until the accident (he said he
doesn't remember walking out of the church). Oh, also he fever is
gone, which is very good. He said he's really bored here. If we can
borrow old movies or something like that, he'd really appreciate it.
VHS or DVD.
He loves war things. Like the
airplane that was given to him (German WWII fighter model), he loved
and wanted to put it together immediately. I asked him about it and he
told me a bunch of facts and such about it. He's a history nerd. heh
He should be moving out of the PICU by
tomorrow. All that he has to do is pass a swallow test and they'll take
the feeding tube out. I seriously doubt that he won't pass it.
Visitors are more than welcome. He's
very bored and he can use some company. If you were wondering about
children visiting him, he has recovered enough for children to see him.
Come see God's hand at work in Jonah. It's an amazing thing. Thanks for
all of those wonderfull prayers that we received and continue to
receive. Updates will be scattered from now on, but I will still do my
best to update as best as I can. Once he starts rehab, I will probably
make a new website for that purpose, but that's a ways off. Keep
checking back here untill I post otherwise. Once again, we all thanks
you greatly.
________________________
Thursday, November 3rd
Jonah's current 5 day schedule is as follows:
9:00AM - 10:00AM : Physical Therapy and Occipatiental Therapy
10:30AM - 11:00AM : Speech Therapy*
11:15AM - 12:30PM : School
2:30 - 3:00PM : Speech Therapy*
3:15 - 4:15: Physical Therapy and Occipatiental Therapy
Please take this into account when choosing when to visit him. Thanks!
*This is required for anyone with a head
injury. He's doing well and is pretty bored with it and they'll
probably end it soon. He passed both the child test (since he is 12)
and the adult test with advanced scores, so that's not a problem.
_________________________
Monday, November 7th
The doctors are now talking about
sending him home in weeks, not months. There will be a definate
decision tomorrow. He is still on the feeding tube. He needs to meet
his food goal 3 days in a row for it to be removed. He met it on
Saturday, but wasn't too hungry on Sunday and didn't meet the goal. I'm
not sure how he did today.
I'll update again tomorrow as soon as I have more details.
_________________
Tuesday, November 8th
Jonah's
doing the same. His doctor said that since he can't put weight on his
legs as of yet, he can't do any therapy for it. His hand movement
continues to improve day-by-day. The feeding tube is not yet out.
They will
X-ray him at the 6 week mark of the accident, which is around
Thanksgiving. They will check to see if the bones and healing properly
and then they may send the okay for him to go home. He will require a
hospital bed, wheelchair, wheelchair ramp, and a ton of other hospital
accessories, so it's not as if he's good to go. They're sending him
home when they choose because they will have to wait on the therapy
until the bones are properly healed.
I'll update again when I get more information.
_____________________
Saturday, November 12th
Jonah
had to have surgery on his hip yesterday, due to skin and tissue damage
where the initial impact was. There was more damage then they expected.
They had to remove a large amount of fatty issue around the hip area
about 16 inches long. There are currently 2 tubes at the top and bottom
of the surgerical cut to suck out fluids. He is on strong antibiotics.
If he gets an infection, then he will have to go back into surgery and
have more issue removed and start all over again. And there are more
worries about infection of the muscle. If no infection sets in, he will
have the tubes removed in 1-2 weeks. Then, he won't be allowed to move
back to the wheelchair rehab for another 1-2 weeks.
Although
this is a setback, we have been witness of God's great healing power
already and we have faith that He will come through for us again. The
more voices praying this, the better.
I apologize for the lack of updates. I've been under the weather lately.
_________________________________
Monday, November 21st
The
doctors went ahead and removed one of the two tubes in his side. He has
been cleared for physical training, so he's back in the wheelchair on
and off. They removed the other tube temporarily and let him roll
around in the wheelchair outside and downstairs and such. He updated
his Xanga, which can be found here: http://www.xanga.com/thedemonsponge. Go give him tons of comments to read when he gets on the computer!
He's
pretty lonely because there hasn't been alot of visitors lately. Go
visit him. He's in a little bit of a funk lately as well.. so go cheer
him up. 5th Floor, room 5303. Bring movies and stuff if you can too.
His favorites are comedy movies, so that'd be good.
________________________________________________________
Thursday, November 24th
Jonah's condition is
still continuing to improve slowly but surely. The other tube in his
side has been removed as well. He has been taken off of antibiotics
completely now. He will have another swallow test in a week or so. His
physical training is continuing now, like I said in the previous
update. One thing I failed to mention is that he has a wound vac on the
surgery incision area. This just brings to the sides of skin together
slowly so it will heal together. This is so the doctors didn't have to
remove skin from another area to close the wound.
He will be
getting x-rays to make sure the bones are healing properly. If there
are no setbacks and he passes the swallow test and the bones are
healing properly, he may be cleared to go home in 2 - 3 weeks, where
he'd stay in a hospital bed most of the time, but would be able to use
a wheelchair from time to time.
Prayer is still appreciated, as
usual. Visits are good right now as well, if you have some spare time
and would like to see him. 5th floor, room 5303. You can ask the front
desk assistants on how to get there as well. Thanks for all the prayers
that have been lifted in Jonah's name. We appreciate it.
____________________________________________________
Tuesday, November 29th 2005
The x-ray
rays were taken yesterday evening and, as expected, he can't put weight
on his leg that was broken yet. Everything is healing properly. He is
no longer on his feeding tube, which means there are no tubes currently
hooked up to him (besides the wound vac, but that's not really a tube).
Since he is unable to go on to physical therapy with his leg, we are
talking to the discharge doctors. They said possibly this weekend at
the soonest. We will need help moving furniture and miscellaneous items
to a local storage area before Thursday. This is to the technicians
time to set up the hospital bed and such. If wish to
help, call the house number given at the top of the page.
Thank you for your prayers.
_________________________________
Sunday, December 11th 2005
Jonah
is now relaxing at home. He is spending his time playing video games
and playing on the computer. He does have a mild staff infection, but
that is being treated with oral antibiotics and is looking better. He
was able to attend last nights band concert, thanks to MEMS and the
administer of MEMS. He really enjoyed everyone's company. Thanks to
everyone who talked to him, he really enjoyed that.
If
you do wish to help out with Christmas gifts, we welcome you to do so.
Pray about it, then act accordingly. Any gift will be appreciated as
have all of the gifts we have already received.
Visits
are still appreciated. Please call a few minutes prior to visiting,
however, for privacy reasons. The numbers are at the top of this page.
Thanks so much! ________________________________
EDIT: Jonah had a fantastic Christmas thanks to everyone of you! Your prayers and visits have meant the world to Jonah and his family. We loved all of the gifts that were given to us and Jonah especially loved his Nintendo DS that was given to him by his grade! Jonah was able to attend Christmas Morning services at his church and he was very, very happy to do so. Be on the look out at school, because Jonah may be visiting sometime soon!
He is still ways away from walking on his own, but he has come a long way. He can walk slowly with a walker, but only for short distances and not very long, but that will improve in time.
Once again, thanks for all of the prayers that have been sent for Jonah's sake. Have a wonderful New Year!
This edit is as of 10:47PM, Monday, January 1st, 2006.
The
separation lines indicate where an edit was made. More historical
and personal feelings, I wish to leave the edits as they originally
were, in the order they were made. The most recent update will be on
the bottom of this post. I will make another post only if I have too.
I'm working on making the dates more accurate and easier too read due to the high traffic to this site. Bear with me. | 
