On the 8th of May 2018, Damien was at Physical Therapy in Ft Lauderdale. It was the last day in Florida before our scheduled flight home on the 9th. Damien was stretching on a machine to improve shoulder flexibility. At the apex of the stretch, we heard a loud snap (it was more than a green-stick fracture but that was what it sounded like) and Damien's left arm immediately went slack. We removed him from the machine, placed him in the car, and drove directly to the hospital.

The recent passing of the actress Patti Duke from sepsis triggered sad and almost tragic memories of Damien's experience with sepsis. In August of 2012, we traveled to La Jolla, California for an intense week of physical therapy. A doctor in Florida had put us in contact with a physical therapist in California. We had also spoken with a former patient of his who had published a book about her treatment. She had made remarkable recovery from her head injury and was a physical

I am angry! To use a saying of my mother's "I am so mad I could bite a 16-penny nail in half". Learning that Damien has Hepatitis C does make my jaws tight. The AMA personnel usually do a very good job, other times not so much. 1. Damien suffered a major hematoma on the left side of his brain while in ICU. They were replacing a brain pressure monitor and ruptured a vessel. They said that this sometimes happens but is an unusual event. The doctor that did the proce

While Damien was in the trauma unit, the ophthalmology staff said that we could determine if Damien's occipital lobe was functioning by placing electrodes over the back skull area to measure any electrochemical activity. They were very busy and that test was not performed in the trauma unit. During the HBOT in Ft Lauderdale, we asked who should we ask to perform such a test? Dr Neubauer suggested we see a neuro-ophthalmologist once we returned home. We brought Damien home in

Part 1 While Damien was in a coma, we had no idea the condition of his vision. Here are a few experiences with determining and evaluating his ability to see after the crash. Trauma Unit. The first few days Damien was in the Trauma Unit; we noticed that he slept with his eyes partially open. With all his injuries, no one had been assigned to look after his eyes. About the 18th day, we noticed that he had a bright yellow substance covering the lower area of his eyes that were

Taste/Smell The first week of ICU, Damien was in a coma. Twice during Damien's ICU stay the doctors placed him in a medical coma. I did some research and found a few articles on how to revive a comatose person. The articles suggested using taste, smell, sound, and touch stimuli as means to revive the person. One of the suggestions was HORRIBLE. They suggested placing drops of Tabasco Sauce on the comatose person's tongue! Can you imagine a comatose person, aware of the envir

14 Dec 1998, 6:15 PM to 15 Dec 1998, 10:00 AM. I had just been told by EMS that Damien had been airlifted to the trauma center. Paula had run an errand and I had no way to contact her. My son Merrill, had been stopped by the high school principal, Sam Champion, and told of the accident. Mr. Champion had visited the crash site and was returning home. Merrill and his aunt, Melody McGowan, stopped by the driver ed school and told me they were on the way to the hospital. I remain