For Jim

It has been suggested that I start a blog about Jim, to keep all our family and friends up to date on Jim's progress, so that is what I'm doing.

On Friday December 4th, my wonderful husband, Jim, suffered a tragic car accident. It was his day off from work. We had a lovely morning together as a family, and then Jim went off to get snow tires put on our car. On his way out, we remembered the box of items we had been meaning to take to donate to the Goodwill for awhile. So Jim grabbed the box, and said he would take it over. That is why he was in the area where the car accident occurred.
I could say a whole lot about the car accident, but I won't. The police are still investigating it, and I make no comment at this time about the other party involved, besides to say that Jim was not at fault. But I will provide some links to newspaper articles.
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo/2009/dec/05/3-badly-injured-post-falls-accident/

http://www.khq.com/global/story.asp?s=11621662

There are some inaccuracies in the descriptions of the injuries received by all parties involved. Jim's injuries are by far the worst of the three.
I've been keeping notes, for Jim's sake about what happened, because I think at some point he'd like to know. So here are some of the notes.
Friday Dec 4, 2009
the accident occurred around 9:15 in the morning. There were two police officers who were first on the scene that practically witnessed the accident. One of those police officers belongs to our church and recognized Jim. We are new to the area, and to our ward at church, so it is a blessing that he remembered who my sister is. He was able to contact my sister, who then was able to tell him how to get in touch with me so I could be notified of Jim's accident.
Jim was hit head on and trapped in the car. They could not get him out without the jaws of life, and it took about half an hour to get him out of the car. During that time the paramedics were with him, trying to help.
The police came to notify me about 10:30 in the morning. My sister came right away to get the kids, and my parents drove me to the hospital. I had to wait about an hour before they even let me see Jim. He was bleeding everywhere, the blood was just flowing out of him. They kept giving him blood, but it would just come right back out. I was told that when he arrived at the hospital he had no pulse. He had a heartbeat, but the blood loss was so severe there was no pulse. I cannot even begin to describe how horrible it was. He was not sedated yet. He was trying to move his right arm when I saw him, and so I was able to hold his hand for a moment. We are Latter Day Saints (Mormon) and my father and brother-n-law were able to give him a blessing at that time.
Then we waited. And waited. And waited. We were told that Jim had broken ribs. A broken Jaw. His left arm was completely broken, both the upper and lower bones in several places (the humerus, radius and ulna). And his clavicle, that's a collar bone. Teeth knocked out and several cracked and broken. He bit completely through his tongue. Both upper legs broken (the femurs). On his right leg, the femur broke through the skin and muscle and severed a tendon. His lower left leg (the tibea) broken in two places. And his left ankle broken. The the top of both tibeas are also cracked, as are his knees. He has a small hip fracture. His right arm is bruised and sprained but not broken. His spine is not broken, and his brain appears to have no trauma, though in order to know for sure, due to oxygen loss, we'll have to wait untill he wakes up.
Some people do not truly understand what all this means. They think, "Oh, it's just broken bones, that's ok." But the shock to the body of having so much broken is so great that there is the risk of something called DIC.
Here's a link about it.
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec14/ch173/ch173h.html

Basically DIC is when the body uses up all the blood clotting factor it has. The result is uncontrollable bleeding. Bleeding that cannot be stopped. In Jim's case the risk was so severe he almost died. In an effort to combat this, they pumped him full of blood and fluids.
Finally late in the evening, we were able to see him. At that point all they could really do was 1st aid by tucking the bone back into the skin of his leg, and making him as stable as they could. He was not stable enough to truly operate on. Jim was totally unrecognizeable the swelling was so bad. From the shock of all the trauma his body had taken, he started to swell. He was also on a ventilator at this point, but not doing well. They could not get his body to receive enough oxygen, even when they were giving him 100%. His abdomen was so swollen, it was cutting off his ability to breathe. It was cutting off circulation to his intestines as well as the arteries. I was asked to leave the room twice as they bagged him, that is ventilated him by hand as a life saving procedure.

I was talked to about Organ Donation.

Then the doctors decided they would try an operation that I'm told is relatively a new procedure. It wasn't around 15 years or so ago, and without it Jim would have died. This was a life saving procedure. They rushed him to the OR and proceeded to make a vertical cut in his abdomen, through the skin and muscle, from under his ribs to right above the groin. The doctors told me that his intestines were pure white, which means that he wasn't getting any blood to them because the swelling was so severe. The procedure is called a "wound vac" and basically what they do is cut the abdomen open, place a sponge on the top, wrap the whole thing in plastic, and put a suction tube on it to help it drain. Wound vacs can be used on other parts of the body as well. Basically, though, Jim's abdomen has had to be cut open as a result of all the injuries his body has sustained.
After that, I was able to see him again. They had placed him on blood pressure support medication, which was basically the only reason he had a blood pressure (because of the medicine). He was on a ventilator, still with very low oxygenation. I think Jim received about three blessings from my dad and his dad and brothers during that time. All have said that Jim will recover. I have faith that he will, but it will be a long hard road. And Jim will continue needing all the prayers her can get.
Whew, ok, It think that's enought for now. That's just the first 24 hours after the accident but it's almost more than I can bear just to have typed all that. I must say I am so thankful for all the thoughts and prayers and love that so many people have been expressing for my wonderful husband. Of course I am partial, and think he is the best man in all the world, but I had no idea that so many people cared and loved him too. thank you.
Currently, Jim is still in critical condition. He has not woken up yet, but that may be due to the fact that he is heavily sedated due to all the trauma he has sustained. I will try to post each night about how he is doing to keep everyone up to date.