I thought I would give you a quick update on Vincent, my stepfather. On Thursday, my mother decided not to have him taken off the respirator and to give him a little more time to rebound.
I'll start from the beginning. My parents were in Pennsylvania at Vincent's family farm for a family reunion. He took the tractor out (alone) to get some work done and it somehow ran over him or he was ejected from it. He lost a lot of blood, crushed his pelvis, damaged his lungs, and bruised his heart. He went into surgery immediately to try to stop the bleeding. He was given at least 15 units of blood (this does not include the platelets and FFP (fresh frozen plasma) that were given). The huge amounts of transfusions and IV solutions have caused him to swell up like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow guy. He came out of surgery intubated (on a respirator) with tubes coming out of his heart (for prevention of cardiogenic shock?), packing in his abdomen for the bleeding and a suprapubic catheter. On Thursday, he went into IR (interventional radiology) to try to have another leak that was found in his iliac artery fixed. On Friday, he went back into surgery and the packing that was placed in on Wednesday was either removed or replaced. His lungs were damaged and started to collect fluid so they also put him on a rotating bed. On Saturday, he went through another procedure to have a mesh or screen put in his legs to prevent blood clots. I haven't heard anything about how that went so I assume it was ok. On Saturday night, his blood pressure and oxygen level dropped too low and he was medicated to bring his pressure back up. They still cannot put him on blood thinners because of the excessive bleeding. I do know that he is still too swollen from the surgeries and blood products that they have not been able to close him up yet. Also, his urine output is low so I don't know if they have considered or started dialysis yet.
My sisters and I decided to take turns flying to Pennsylvania if he is able to pull through this. My sister, Cathi (a nurse) is going first to assess the situation and to let us know more of the technical stuff that my sisters and I keep on asking. On Tuesday of this week, I will have a better understanding of what is going on with Vincent and my Mom.
I’m afraid that Cathi is going to get there on Monday evening to find the situation as worse as we expect so hopefully she can counsel my Mom on what is best for Vincent while educating her on his condition. Mom is filled with huge amounts of guilt because she thinks that she should have somehow known (telepathically) that he was injured. We still don’t know what to do about that situation but Cathi’s presence should help.
I’m sorry that I had to send out a mass email update but I tend to forget stuff. Please feel free to call me if you have any questions.
Thank you all for your concern, I appreciate it more than you will ever know,
K
