Update...Man is TOUGH!
Posted
Tuesday, May 22, 2007 2:34 PM
Whew. I am finally breathing and my stomach pains are disappearing. My cousin's husband is going to live. Well, he's still listed as critical and will be in the ICU for at least another week, but he's alive, and I feel strongly that he is going to stay alive. He is a fighter if I've ever seen one. I saw him Sunday and he was just a beat up mess. He was in a chemically-induced coma and was so swollen. I saw him Monday night and he was alert (quite full of morphine, but alert) and off the ventilator a whole three days before the nurses and doctors had planned on! He is VERY unhappy right now. Yes, he said he knows he's lucky to be alive, but he keeps asking questions about his shattered bone, about the huge swollen mass attached to his shoulder, and about the bike he remembers crashing. He's scared. And he's really uncomfortable. He snaps at his wife, but she knows he loves her and is just frustrated. He can't have anything but water and ice chips, he is still covered in old blood, and his body is laying in a distorted position with pillows and tubes all around him. I can understand why he's frustrated.
When my cousin got to his room on Sunday morning, before they had removed the ventilator and tubes in his throat, she found a note by his bed with the word "wife" on it. She said, "Were you looking for me?" and was so happy! He was finally communicating, and that's what she had been waiting for. My cousin is only 26. She never imagined she'd be experiencing something like this.
He was only going 25 miles per hour. He wasn't being reckless. He wasn't drinking. He was on a small ride on a country road. My cousin finally spoke to the police and found out what exactly happened. A person driving behind him gave a police report of what he saw. My cousin's husband had problems shifting, so he looked down at his foot for one second to make sure it was in the right place. He swerved the slighest bit to the right and lost a bit of control. He bumped a tree next to the road and it flew him off the bike. He landed, chest down, on top of a 6 inch tree stump. That's what shattered his clavical bone, put a hole in his chest, and sliced his vein. He's obviously lucky he avoided hitting his head or puncturing any other organs. He is being cited by the police for three things: failure to control his vehicle, driving without a motorcycle license, and not wearing a helmet. Interesting, in the state of Ohio, you are required to wear a helmet, yet I've been stopped at a red light several times behind a cop car with a motorist without a helmet right next to the cop, and the motorist never gets pulled over. But in a life or death situation, you better believe they are smacking you with a fine and a court date. Funny how that works.
Here's the really bad news. My cousin just found out that her husband just elected to not renew his short and long term disability leave. He was trying to save money, and since he never used it in the 10 years he's worked there, he didn't renew it. He has three weeks of vacation, and then he has to take unpaid time off for the remainder of his hospital stay and recovery. And he's looking at two more surgeries, rehab, etc. I feel so terrible. And I want to help however I can. Home Depot has a Homer Fund that allows employees and customers of Home Depot to donate money to his cause, and the corporate office will match that, and that's great, but it's not enough. Not with the deductibles from their health insurance, other uncovered medical bills, loss of employment, etc. So I have taken the initiative and am organizing a fundraiser for them. He has helped so many people, especially us with our deck and basement. We owe it to him. And I love to plan things, so this will be great for me too. I know my cousin doesn't want to ask for help, but she also knows when to step back and just let people help her. None of her friends or family can really afford to give them a big chunk of change, but all of us can each give a little, and a little can add up to a lot. I'm very optimistic.
Thanks for reading.