Accident

Saturday morning we were at home working around the house. Kirby was hanging trim in the bedrooms and I was having a freezer meal making day. We heard the jaws a life get called out over Kirby's pager he has for the volunteer fire department. "Man pinned under a tree, he is conscious and breathing." I said to Kirby, "that's not good" and went about my business. A few minutes later Kirby said, "is Brandon cutting hedge today?" I said I didn't know but I would call my sister in a few minutes and find out. (Brandon is my sister's husband and he and his dad often cut down hedge trees, make posts out of them, and sell them.) I got busy doing other things and forgot to call my sister, I honestly thought, what are the odds that it would be Brandon.

20 minutes later we recieve a call from my mom...Brandon has been in an accident...a tree fell on his back...they are air lifting him from the field to University Hospital in Iowa City. It's not good.

I got all of my food put away, Kirby took the kids to his parents, we left for Iowa City.

We got a call from my mom. He will live. CAT scan is not looking good, strong chance of paralysis they're going to do an MRI.

We arrive at the hospital. Lots of hugs, lots of tears, lots of praying. We wait for the results of the MRI.


two possible results:

#1. The spinal cord will be completely severed, there's nothing they can do, he will be paralyzed.
#2. There will be some hope of saving is legs and they will do surgery.

We wait.

MRI Results... It's bad. T12 vertibrae is shattered, severe injury to the spinal cord. But there is hope, he's young, he's strong, they will give him a chance, they will do surgery.

We get to see him for 2-3 minutes. We watch helplessly as they wheel him to surgery.

We wait.

4 hours in, it's going well. 1-2 more hours to go.

We wait.

2 hours later. Surgery is over. The neurosurgion talks to the family. Removed most of T12, L1 has some damage as well. They put screws and supporting rods in his back. They did everything they could possible do. "It's in God's hands now."

By Sunday morning he can feel his buttox, they do a rectal exam, he feels it. He feels some sensation in his right leg, not much in his left. He feels some shooting pains down his legs. All good signs. He can't feel his feet. It's possible for him to walk with braces even if he never gets feeling back in his feet. He wouldn't have to be confined to a wheelchair.

Monday morning he still can't feel his feet but is still feeling sensations in his legs.

So for now, we wait. We pray. We hope.

You can find out the latest on his carepage.