R.J.'s Accident

On Sunday evening March 25, 2012, R.J. was driving home from a church meeting in Flagstaff, Arizona. He was 18 miles outside of shiprock, and after passing three cars and pulling back into his lane, hit a bump and bottomed out. His car, the two seater thunderbird convertible, spun out of control and off the road. R.J. has no recollection of any of this and his first memory is of someone standing over his head telling him help would be there soon. He was life flighted into the hospital in Farmington. Upon first review, they found that he has broken his C2, C4, C5, and C7 in his neck. His two lower ribs in back on his left side are broken, and he has internal and external bleeding. It was not only a great relief, but a miracle that he has no spinal cord injuries. He had an MRI on Monday evening and was moved after that from ICU to a general room. On Tuesday morning the Neurosurgeon looked at the MRI and found a blood clot in his vertebral artery above his C7 and determined that he had a mild cerebellum stroke at the time of the accident. They immediately moved him to "Step Down", which is a step down from ICU but is more one on one care. They started him on Heparin and started a more intense watch. On Wednesday they switched his pain medication to dilaudid and he spent most of the day in and out of sleep, but his pain seems to be being managed with this drug. He went in for a CT scan on Wednesday evening to make sure that he had no internal bleeding exaggerated by the heparin. He had a rough night with the new meds, making him really itchy and uncomfortable. He has had a hard time staying in one place for so long and tries to shift his body quite frequently to try to get comfortable. New bruises pop up daily as his body begins to tell the story of the trauma it endured. He frequently pulls his oxygen and blood pressure cuff off and has been frustrated with all the cords, beeping, and pokes. Throughout all of this, even when he can hardly speak a sentence without falling asleep, he has remained positive and good spirited.