Thursday, August 31, 2006

Two weeks after the accident

At first the doctors said she may not make it... It was the hardest thing for a mother to have to do. She was instructed to call her children and give them the horrible news. The doctors, luckily, did not know of Natalie's driven and determined personality.

Once Rebecca and I had arrived at the hospital Natalie was still in critical condition. It was very difficult to stay strong inside her room but everybody did a terrific job. She had a large cut that went from her left brow all the way to the back of her head. This was stitched up when I saw her. I had also heard that the skin from her bottom lip down to her chin was completely missing - this, too was stitched up once we were there. She had an extraventricular drain inserted into her brain to help keep her intracranial pressure at a reasonable level. A breathing tube was also put into her mouth and her breaths were assisted by a ventilator. Natalie's parents were telling me that she was looking much better than she had when they brought her in, I couldn't imagine what they'd seen.

The night Natalie arrived doctors became extremely worried about her ICP levels and internal bleeding. They concluded that these symptoms were directly related to the fractures in her pelvis. She was immediately brought into surgery with the intention to mend her pelvis. This surgery resulted in pins on either side of her pelvis holding it together tightly with the assistance of a durable metal cage that protruded from her body about 6 inches. In doing this the docters had come up with a temporary solution to stop her blood loss from the pelvic injury and this was a huge step in Natalie's recovery process.

Some days later one of Natalie's neurosurgeons brought us into a room to describe what had happened to her brain. He described her injuries as a 'brain shearing' - referred to medically as a Diffuse Axonal Injury- meaning that her crainial lobes had shifted thus disconnecting the axons in her brain. Because of this, she had lost many functions due to the incompletion of her nervous system's synapses.

Since then, Natalie has made a vast improvement. Orthopedic doctors were succesful in repairing her pelvic bone (they put affixed metal plates to the front and back of her pelvis that stretched out to her left hip for support) and also fixed her broken left ankle using screws. She also had her nasojajunal feeding tube taken out and replaced by a peg in her stomach and had her breathing tube replaced by a trachea tube as a more permanent solution. The drain that was regulating the pressures in her brain was also removed because of her low ICP numbers before, during, and after the pelvic surgery.

The day after surgery Natalie suffered a temporary setback when one of her lungs stopped working and she developed a very high fever. She was temporarily put back on a ventilator for 24 hours while her condition was stabilized.

Physically Nat looks worlds better than the first time I saw her on Thursday, August 17, a day after the accident. Her scars are healing and her road rash is disappearing. She is improving with every day that goes by.

I have been asked by the Foulger family to extend their heartfelt thanks to everyone for being so gracious and thoughtful in their time of need. The amount of support that you all are showing this family is extraordinary and it has made this difficult time a little easier knowing that you all care so genuinely. Please keep Natalie in your prayers for a speedy recovery and feel free to post comments or questions.

The first post


While sitting in the sixth floor waiting room at SUNY Upstate Medical University Hospital Jane Morton had an idea to post Natalie's progress on the web. I accepted the task knowing full well that it would help the Foulger's by limiting the amount of phone calls they would receive asking about Natalie. I will try my best to update this blog at least once a day and let you all know how Nat is doing. Also, please feel free to post your own comments to the blog.