Trauma Unit

Tuesday morning I woke Jeffrey up to take him to get registered for school. As we were waiting in line to get registered I was filling out forms and asked Jeffrey what his school number was. He answered with a "ok, yeah". I asked again and got the same answer. After that he wouldn't response to any of my questions. I was very scared that he was acting strange and not answering. I dragged him to the car and went to the bishops house and talked to the bishops wife. By that time he was really not being responsive, drooling, staring into space, and so I called 911. The paramedics came and took him to Primary Children's. I called Jeff at work and told him that the paramedics were taking him to the hospital and to meet us there. When I got there he was in a different world...he acted like one feels sometimes when they have a high fever and reality is sort of a blur. He didn't really recognize me or Jeff and wasn't responding to any questions.


Let me back up now a few days. Last week Jeffrey went to scout camp at Bear Lake. One day after lunch the boys were back at camp and got into some kind of disagreement. At one point a scout threw a stick and Jeffrey's head got in the way. As far as we know he never lost conciousness. The bishop was there and Jeffrey was complaining about not being able to hear. The bishop was very concerned and so decided to have him checked out and took him to the clinic in town. He said jeffrey was tired on the way to the clinic but wouldn't let him fall asleep and threatened to start singing if Jeffrey started falling asleep. The clinic checked him out, the ear was fine. He wasn't vomiting or showing any severe signs. They called it a mild concussion and told him to take some ibuprofin and not go swimming that night. He seemed to be ok. He participated in the activities for Friday and then came home on Saturday. Through the weekend he seemed fine. He occasionally said he was having to think before talking and that it was bugging him a little. He seemed to have been really well behaved and fine. Monday August 18th I took the kids school shopping and he seemed fine. Monday night he was arguing with us (I don't remember what about) and Jeff remarked to me that he it was pretty obvious that nothing was wrong with him because he wasn't have a hard time arguing like normal.


Back to Tuesday....after ruling out anything he had taken or drank and hearing about his injury they decided to take a CT scan. The CT scan showed that he had blood (bruise/contusion) in the brain in his left temporal lob. That part of the brain may affect your speech, comprehension, etc. While in the emergency room he was very confused and couldn't really speak much. He was agitated at times and kept taking off the monitors and couldn't understand why he needed the blood pressure cuff on his arm. The nurse would remove it to reposition it and he would say thanks and then react frustrated when she put it back on. He didn't know what anyone's name was or where he was or who he was. Trauma doctors and neurosurgeons came to see him. While in the emergency room when he would settle down he would go to sleep. When going to sleep it seemed like he forget to breath. So every once in a while his oxygen number would go do and we would need to wake him up a little so he would take a breath. Because of that and because it is a brain injury they sent him to the ICU. The doctors were surprised that there is so much blood in the brain without the skull being fractured. They kept him in the ICU overnight and then the next day they did a MRI. The MRI showed that the bleeding wasn't caused by any other condition other then the hit to the head with the stick. Right now they tell us it will just take time for the injury to heal. They don't know if it will take days, weeks, months. During the day he did come more around and understanding more and more. At times he could talk but couldn't really find the correct word for what he wanted to say. He eventually came around to knowing me and Jeff. He kept pleading with us to take him to "that place", meaning home. "There's nothing wrong with me. I shouldn't be here..." He got to the point that he knew his full name, what day it was, what school he goes to, where he was at (hospital). By Wednesday night that had moved us out of the ICU and into a regular room.


Thursday we wanted to leave as soon as we could but there were a lot of doctors that wanted to see us and one thing after another. We didn't get home until 7:30. From here he is going to get some speech therapy (really therapy for cognitive skills) and we will take him back in a month to get another CT scan to make sure the brain has healed good. He doesn't get to go to school for the first week and then half a day after that for a while. Believe it or not he is sad that he doesn't get to go back to school; only because he wants to see his friends.

When we got home friends from the neighborhood had put the above sign on the garage door that we moved into our living room. It has been awesome the love and concern that so many people have shared with us during the last few days. TY and JEN, Thanks for helping us out with Zach and Anika