What has happened

On Monday, May 25 (Memorial Day), 2009, Geoffrey was late for work as usual. Contrary to my many objections and observations of the past, he was speeding and not wearing his seatbelt. Geoffrey passed some slower moving vehicles and failed to negotiate a lane change properly. He side swiped another car, over corrected, and began rolling through the center median. Geoff was ejected out the drivers side window and landed on the east bound lanes of Highway 98. Geoff was transported by ambulance (bad weather, no chopper) to Baptist Hospital.

Initially, Geoff's injuries seemed minor to the event. The doctors told us no broken bones, no internal organ damage BUT he did hit his head......hard. Geoff was never conscious following the accident and was sleeping now. The Neurologist, Dr. Wolfe, stated Geoffrey has a "shearing" injury to his cerebral cortex, the bundle of nerves that travel down to the spinal cord and control all the bodies functions. Probably a bleeder in there that will keep hm out for some time. First CAT scan looked good, minimal bleeding, little swelling. I told Geoff to squeeze my hand, he did, I cried. It is midnight day one, we're all exhausted, we head home for the night to try to rest.

Made it to Gulf Breeze when the phone rang. Cranial pressure up, CAT scan shows a huge bleeder on the right side, and the surgeon is on his way in for emergency surgery. We turn around and call everyone back. Geoff comes through surgery okay, he is now the proud owner of 2 steel plates in his head. The bleeders were on the outside of the brain, a good thing at this point. Clot removed, bleeders stopped. It's a little after 2am now, 12 hours since the accident. They had to restrain Geoff's wrists because he is trying to remove the breathing tube. The kid is a fighter.

After a whirlwind 3 hours of sleep, were back at Baptist Hospital. Geoff is still critical, but stable. The kid looks good, one scrape on his right hand, one on his right forarm, a bruise on his left rib cage. That folks is it. He is on a ventillator, standard proceedure for this type of injury. Geoff is never without a hat, today is no diffrent. He's sporting a new gauze and mesh beanie over the bolt in hs head. Yeah, not a typo, a bolt with a pressure monitor through it. This is one of the most critical things we learn about over the next few days, Inner Cranial Pressure (ICP). Day two is a little easier, but still having rough patches. We are learning all the medicines, what they do, and what were trying to fix. Katie and Nick visited today, they did pretty good from what I hear. Michelle visited him tonight.

Day three; They have been checking his EEG, brain waves. Yup, Geoff is still in there. They are having to give him Morphine periodically. When they do, his breathing slows and he relies on he vent again. Geoff has developed a small case of Pneumonia, typical of being on the vent. A course of antibiotics should take care of this. They started feeding Geoff some Ensure by a tube to his stomach. ICP keeps spiking up, not what they want to see. Seems the higher the ICP, with his low blood pressure, the less blood flow through the brain. Not what we need. Less stimulation is the plan. We had turned on Cartoon Network yesterday (they had it on Country Music TV). He likes some of the cartoons, his pressures went up. Off went the TV. Steve and I saw the surgery site for the first time, almost a race to the floor for both of us.

Day four; Rough day for dad. Doctors still worried about high ICP. Geoff won't chill out so the doctor has decided to chill him by placing him in a medically induced coma. Geoff's temperature is back below 100, antibiotics are working. Initially, he is not having any issues with the drugs being used for the coma, but guess what, he still won't chill out. They are now going to paralize him. Plan is to keep him in the coma until at least Monday before trying to wake him up.