It's been a month since my younger cousin Wes was in a horrific car accident, and it's been a whole lot of ups and downs since the wreck. The initial phone calls sounded very, very bad. As in, "he's most likely not going to survive" bad, but he's surprised a lot of people and pulled through. His doctors say that he's going to be in the hospital for months still, and that he'll need extensive rehab further down the road, but he's alive.
He has a significant brain injury, just how bad remains to be seen but he's making progress. What he has is a shear injury, I did a lot of reading online so that I'd understand at least a little bit more and it's pretty common in high speed auto accidents, this page explains it better than I could:
http://catalog.nucleusinc.com/displaymo ... php?MID=12
I assumed his paralysis was due to the spine fractures but apparently it's due to the brain injury, he's paralyzed on the left side because of the injury to the right side of his brain. We've been told that the fact that his paralysis is only on one side is a very very good sign and that the left side paralysis might not be permanent.
Cognitively, it's still up in the air, there's no telling how good or bad things will end up. He's not completely unresponsive, he reacts to certain stimuli and has shown some promising signs. His doctors are being cautious and conservative when they're asked how much of a recovery he'll make and I understand that there's just no Magic 8 Ball they can shake and ask for a definitive answer. Wes's mom, my aunt, says that she's heard him speak a few times, but we're not sure if he actually spoke or if it's because she desperately needs to hear him speak. Hopefully it's the former but even if it's the latter, it's helping her to believe that he's talking to her. They put a hacky sack in his hand a lot and he squeezes it sometimes, plus they're sending in a physical therapist to help head off a longer recovery process later. He's in the stepdown unit, which is a lot more cheerful than the ICU. He has a feeding tube but isn't on the ventilator anymore, that's one of the huge steps that made everyone really happy. He had a UTI but that's all cleared up now, another plus.
That's pretty much it, he's taking little baby steps but they're in the right direction. We still don't know what's going to happen long term, but the news is a little bit better every week, waaaay better than things looked those first few days when everyone was told to expect the worst.
He has a significant brain injury, just how bad remains to be seen but he's making progress. What he has is a shear injury, I did a lot of reading online so that I'd understand at least a little bit more and it's pretty common in high speed auto accidents, this page explains it better than I could:
http://catalog.nucleusinc.com/displaymo ... php?MID=12
I assumed his paralysis was due to the spine fractures but apparently it's due to the brain injury, he's paralyzed on the left side because of the injury to the right side of his brain. We've been told that the fact that his paralysis is only on one side is a very very good sign and that the left side paralysis might not be permanent.
Cognitively, it's still up in the air, there's no telling how good or bad things will end up. He's not completely unresponsive, he reacts to certain stimuli and has shown some promising signs. His doctors are being cautious and conservative when they're asked how much of a recovery he'll make and I understand that there's just no Magic 8 Ball they can shake and ask for a definitive answer. Wes's mom, my aunt, says that she's heard him speak a few times, but we're not sure if he actually spoke or if it's because she desperately needs to hear him speak. Hopefully it's the former but even if it's the latter, it's helping her to believe that he's talking to her. They put a hacky sack in his hand a lot and he squeezes it sometimes, plus they're sending in a physical therapist to help head off a longer recovery process later. He's in the stepdown unit, which is a lot more cheerful than the ICU. He has a feeding tube but isn't on the ventilator anymore, that's one of the huge steps that made everyone really happy. He had a UTI but that's all cleared up now, another plus.
That's pretty much it, he's taking little baby steps but they're in the right direction. We still don't know what's going to happen long term, but the news is a little bit better every week, waaaay better than things looked those first few days when everyone was told to expect the worst.
