Update on my Girls.

Gordy

   Back on 6/30 my wife (Sandy) and one daughter (Kalenna) were involved in a very bad head on car accident, that resulted in the death of the other driver a 19 year old girl who caused the accident. She drifted off the shoulder whether by distraction, or mechanical failure it is not known yet after previously passing cars.



  Sandy broke 3 ribs, collapsed lung, 4 broken toes on the brake foot, pelvis fractured in 3 places, hairline fracture to the c4, and multiple cuts from glass. No surgeries required.



Kalenna was flown by helicopter, and was a level 3 on the gloscow scale (1 is brain dead,) had a fractured fibula, crushed cheek bone, broken nose, brain trauma (axonal diffusion) which is an umbrella name for multiple sites of injury to the brain. She also had to have 8' of small intestine removed due to the lap belt causing trauma to the abdomen with a temporary ostemy.



Sandy left the hospital after 8 days 3 of which were in ICU. She was released of her injuries as of 1 week ago, and all though sore, and stiff is doing well.



Kalenna was in ICU 22 days with 6  surgeries to her injuries. In Peds for 1 week, and then to VanMatre for 3 weeks of rehab.  After having her home for 1 week we thought we were on the road to a steady recovery, but she developed a blockage in her small intestine which required her to go back in the hospital for 2 1/2 weeks the blockage was caused by scar tissue from the initial repair surgery.



 She has since been home, and all is going well its a long road for both to be 100% more so Kalenna. Her mind is all there, her left side, and voice are weak do to the trauma, and some from the brain injury. She still has to have her ostemy reversed in Jan.



  Hopefully Kalenna will be able to start college in the spring at NIU which is where they were coming home from the day of the accident ( freshman orientation).    



 My heart goes out to the parents of the other driver. I came close to losing half of my immediate family. It was their only child.



 The uncanny events of the moments after the accident were truly a miracle in itself. The dist. 2 fire chief, and his partner who were off duty at the time were in the vehicle ahead of Sandy, and Kalenna, and had to swurve out of the girls path to avoid her. They initiated the helicopter call. There were 2 off duty paramedics in traffic that helped extracate my girls moments before both vehicles completely burned up. If someone would have just waited for the emergency vehicles after the 911 call things would have been totally different.



 I have always respected our voulenteer emergency personel, but I have a better one now. For them thier job is not a job its a way of life. We have met all involved in the incident, and thanked them for thier actions. They do not get that much since I have learned.



MOST OF ALL,  I WANT TO THANK ALL OF YOU HERE ON THE WALL FOR YOUR THOUGHTS, AND PRAYERS. THEY WORKED! 



Dan I can empathise with your Meg if I remember correctly you were in a same scenerio with her. You telling me that helped me more than you know.





Gordy

lchmb

Glad

to hear things are improving every day!! One more reason to hug your wife and kids every day..

Tim McElwain

Gordy, good to hear

my wife and I along with our prayer group has had this on their prayer list since we received word about what happened. It is good to know that prayers do get answered.

Mark Eatherton

Wow...

The power of prayer is powerful.



Interesting how your life can change in the blink of an eye...



GIve them a hug from me.



Thanks for the update Gordy. WIll keep them in my thoughts.



ME

Gordy

Some humor, and things we have learned

 To add a little humor to the event. Kalenna is/was going to be an occupational therapist. That was until Her 3 weeks at the rehab facility. I remember one day she said Pap pa Bear I'm switching my major to physical therapy. Why is that I asked?? Kalenna said occupational therapists have to wipe butts.



 I think she will do well at either when she resumes her school studies. I can't think of a more qualifying event to be a therapist of any kind.



Another, the day she finally got off the respirator. She could not speak due to the temporary damage from the tubes down her throat. She would try to write on a piece of paper lying on her back eyes not open yet. I remember standing there when the RN asked my wife her cell phone number. Before she could rattle it off Kalenna had already wrote it on the piece of paper.....I knew then things would be okay.



 Fellas check the coverage on your auto insurance, and understand everything about the coverage.



 Here in Illinois the min. Liability is 20/40 to carry on your auto. Most people have 100/300 with 100 under insured motorist, unless you ask for more or less.



The way your under insured motorist part works is if the other party has less than your cap yours will pick up the difference. In my case we both had 100/300 with 100 under insured. So my 100 cancels out nothing. If I would have had 250/500 with 250 under insured mine would have picked up 150k over her 100.



Let me tell you 100k is diddly when injuries as such happened. I would deff up your policies to 250/500 with 250 under insured, and add a 1 or 2 million dollar umbrella to cover yourselves in case you are at fault. You cant add an umbrella until you max your regular coverage.

All along I thought the under insured stacked on to the other parties liability coverage. It does not. Shame on me for allowing myself to be naive to this. 



 Its also amazing you really think you have some good health insurance with life time caps of 1 million dollars per family member. Not so, all though Kalenna will not be on my insurance the rest of her life. She will have used up more than 1/3 of this cap in one incident.



And most of all I have always been one to hug my loved ones. When I first came on this site over 10 years ago I remember seeing Dans signature Hug Your Kids. I thought to myself then, now there is a guy who knows whats important in life. Sometimes we tend to drift a little from that motto in our busy days until something like this happens its a slap in the face, and so should Dans signature be to all of us. We got a second chance life is so precious! The other family did not. I can only hope that was their motto.



Gordy

bill_105

Gord

I don't know you and you don't me.

I had had a rough week last week. But nothing like your stuff. My wife started crying over, "That stupid heating site"

Were not the praying types, but our thoughts of love and well being are with you.

DanHolohan

Yes, Gordy.

Meg taught me the greatest lesson of all, but the learning sure was tough. I'm so glad to hear of this good news, and I'm so sorry for the loss of that other young woman.



Hug your kids.

Paul Fredricks_3

Same here Gordy

Keep the happy thoughts and the laughter going. Focus on the future. Has always worked for me.

billtwocase

glad to hear

things are lookin up for you and your family Paul. God Bless