Donna’s Accident & Road to Recovery

The past two weeks have been a complete blur… Trust me, I’m not complaining but last night was the first time I’ve been able to lay flat to sleep since this all happened. On the upside, I have learned how to sleep in a chair. I know that everyone has probably been following along on my facebook posts (hopefully). I just wanted to take a few minutes to document the details and specifics of Donna’s injury if for no other reason to just show how big of a miracle it is that we have her with us.

The Night of the Accident

We tried to call the helicopter to land and take her directly to Regional One in Memphis. It’s the only level one trauma center in the area. Unfortunately, there was entirely too much ice to land the helicopter so two brave women from Pafford’s Ambulance Service in Barton loaded us up and we made the trip. The roads were horrible, I think I snapped a picture from the back of the ambulance when some deer crossed the road in front of us. Fortunately, we made it.

The Longest Two Hours Ever…

When we got to the Elvis Presley Memorial Level One Trauma Center she was sent to assessment and I was placed in a cold dark room and was told they would come and get me when they could. I sat in that room balling my eyes out because there was a very real chance that they were going to walk in and tell me that she didn’t make it. My brain was so scrambled in that moment that I knew I needed to be praying but I can’t remember being able to hold a clear thought in my head so I just did the best that I could. I knew that God was hearing me and even though my words might not be perfect. After about two hours, she was stabilized and I was told that she would be admitted into the Trauma Intensive Care Unit with the following injuries…

• Fractured Skull & Temporal Bone
• Traumatic Brain Injury & Swelling
• Brain Bleeds (5)
• Broken Collarbone
• Broken Ribs (4)
• Broken Femur & Hip

Regional One Trauma ICU

When I was finally able to see her she was completely out on a bed in the ICU and there were people all around her trying to wake her and she wasn’t responding. The neuro-surgeon that was on call told me that it’s not uncommon in situations like this w/ brain swelling as severe as Donna’s that they might have to go in and remove a portion of her skull to allow the brain room to swell until they are able to get the swelling down. I can remember feeling like I had been hit by a train and needing to sit down.

The nursing team at the TICU at Regional One were top-notch, I think they saw me in her room balling my eyes out and on my knees praying beside her bed and knew that I was really freaked out so more than once they came in and explained in pretty good detail what we were going to be experiencing over the next few weeks with an injury like Donna’s.

I will spare you the daily updates that I’ve shared daily on Facebook because it was the only way that I could think of to update everyone at the same time about Donna’s condition and what to specifically pray for at a particular moment. My cell phone was blowing up and there was no way I was going to be able to respond to everyone. You guys have no idea how much it meant to me to hear our phones in the corner of the room buzzing each and every time you guys would send us a message. Please accept my apologies for not being able to respond to all of you.

Nothing Can Prepare You…

I can tell you this… nothing prepares you for when your loved one has a head injury and doesn’t know who you are or what’s going on. It’s also really hard to watch someone who has always been so strong and active not be able to move their hands, fingers, or toes on one side of their body. It will break you quick and send you to your knees to pray. Fortunately, prayers get answered!

Current Situation…

Okay, so yesterday we pulled off a pretty significant mission on this journey… We were able to get medical transport to move Donna from Regional One in Memphis to Conway Regional Rehabilitation Center. Her sister Bridgette has been a rock star throughout this entire situation. Also, our friend, Kelly Rottinghaus, has been a huge help to us.

I didn’t share anything about our plans specifically because I wanted to give Donna time to get adjusted to her new surroundings where she will be for a couple of weeks. Essentially she will be learning to walk all over again. She will also have some things to work on related to her left side that have been restricting her arm and leg movement. As far as the broken bones go, they did a complete hip replacement and she has already started rehabilitation on that. We will continue to monitor her head injury but after a week of stable scans they neuro team felt okay w/ her moving out of Regional One.

Okay, so what happened?

This has probably been the number one question. Long story short, we were down at the farm for this past winter storm that delivered tons of ice and sleet. We got bored and decided that we would get out and get some milk. We tossed our two sled discs into the truck and saw some friends going down the hill at the trail head we decided to join in. Here’s the actual video… it’s taken me until now to be able to watch it, I can close my eyes and still see her unresponsive when I got there and grabbed her and I might not ever be able to get that out of my head. The only reason I’m sharing this video is because I want God to get all of the glory for the miracle of her healing and the thousands of prayers he has answered.

I know this is hard to watch, but understand my reason for sharing it. It’s a miracle from God that our girl is still with us. I will never pretend to know the answers to the question of why, but I definitely know “who” to look to for hope and restoration.