Thank you to our friend Stephanie for setting this up for me, now I just hope I know what I'm doing. I've decided to start this out with a recap of where we started and where we are now. It is hard for me to keep dates correct but at least for those of you not on
Facebook you will be up to date.
On March 17, 2010 Dave had a follow up Doctor's appointment on his left hip. In October he had a hip replacement and he was feeling better than ever. We are not sure what happened but he crossed over the center line on FM 1912 into the path of an 18 wheeler. Dave's vehicle hit between the truck and trailer on the driver's side of the vehicle. The driver of the 18 wheeler was not injured. Dave was transported by Life Star to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo. Northwest is a trauma 3 hospital. The first report was not something anyone ever wants to hear. I was told Dave almost bled out at the scene and his blood pressure was 50/not enough to register. It seemed like it was hours but I'm sure it was only minutes before Dr.
McNeir came out along with Dr.
Bjork and gave me a glimmer of hope. They could find no apparent internal injuries or head trauma. Then came the words, "we are not sure we can save his left arm". His left leg was severely damaged which would require major surgery. As the doctors left with my husband to go to surgery to evaluate the extent of the injuries I felt so relieved when they told me the decision of amputation did not have to made then. I would have a few days before they would really know what was going on. Doctors put two temporary plates in his left arm to hold wound open and then
stabilized his leg. After many pints of blood he was brought to ICU and Dr.
McNeir came in to talk to us. He told us it was really a wait and see but they had him
stabilized and Dr.
Risko an orthopedic surgeon would begin
multiple surgeries on his arm and leg in a few days. He also told us he would have to remain on a respirator for awhile. When I walked into ICU to see him it was like watching t.v., not something that could possibly be happening in real life. I had never seen so many machines sitting on top of each other with so many tubes and needles. All fighting to save Dave's life. It is a sound and sight I will never forget. The next couple of days are kind of a blur. He continued to have surgeries on his left arm to clean out the wound. He was missing a rather large piece of both his radius and ulna in his forearm. The last surgery he had they took out the two small plates that were placed on day of accident and replaced with one large plate. A wound vac was placed in an area around his wrist to speed up the healing process. Then the job of trying to reconnect everything in his arm began. You can't imagine the joy we all felt when Dr. Risko said the arteries were pumping blood to his hand and everything looked great. Through all of this Dave's blood pressure continued to go up and down. I wish I could tell you what day he had his leg surgery but I just can't remember. The surgery was supposed to last 3-4 hrs. At 1:45 he went into surgery and by 5 I knew something just wasn't right. After 6 hrs. the doctor came out with sweat running down his face and an exhausted look. He gave us the update on his leg and then returned to work on the arm. When they went into his femur they found 15 fractures. He said it was the worse fracture he had ever seen. Because of Dave's hip replacement they had a ball and socket and shaft standing by. The prosthetic hip was intact but they did have to replace the ball and socket, the shaft, installed a large plate that covers entire outside thigh, and placed cables surrounding all of it. The shaft was what caused all the fractures. They had the longest shaft available which they used but doctor would rather it had been about 2 inches longer. This means staying off of it longer, giving it time to heal, and hoping that it will be secure enough. If not they will go back in and implant a custom made shaft. By the time the doctor finished leg and arm he had been in surgery for over 7 hrs. The next day they started removing
meds and tubes one at a time. If he handled that
ok they would move onto the next one. Two days after surgery they sat him on the side of the bed. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen or felt. He was able to move his figures on his left. Truly a miracle. On Thursday night they moved him out of ICU and onto a floor. Right before we left ICU the occupational therapist noticed that all the swelling had gone down on his "good" arm and hand then noticed his thumb was obviously broken. On Friday he had surgery on his thumb. Dr.
Risko will perform the final bone graft and the skin graft on his left arm on Friday and then close it up. Hopefully all of his injuries can then begin to heal and if we can keep infection and blood clots away we should have no problems. He has continued to need blood every other day or so, but this is normal for severe trauma and all of the surgeries.
