- Joined
- Mar 24, 2005
- Location
- Stanley, NC
Saturday June 12, my dad Mike was doing a trackday at Carolina Motorsports Park on his race prepped GSXR 750, with a few of his friends. Around 11am, he was exiting turn two, when he spun up the back tire and highsided. He was thrown off the bike and landed on the left side of his head and left shoulder. The bike slid off the track in turn 3, but so much energy was absorbed by his impact that he didn't slide very far. He hit hard enough that it cracked the styrofoam in his helmet, and ripped the front zipper open on his leathers.
The track staff and medical were on it immediately, and the riders behind him responded quickly to slow and get there hands up, and avoid him. He laid unconcious and motionless on the track while they worked on him, and within 30 minutes he was airlifted to Palmetto Health Richland, a level 1 trauma center, in Columbia, SC.
My wife and I were on the way to a marriage conference in Aiken, SC that started at 1:30. We were about 20 miles out of Columbia when we got a call from my mom just before noon. She said "Where are you?" and I could tell from her voice that something was wrong. All she knew is that he had been airlifted to Columbia "richmond" hospital. About that time I saw the sign that said Richland County, and figured out that was probably the name of the hospital. We got to the hospital within minutes of the helicopter. We had no idea what to expect, and I was brought to tears as I was parking the car.
We waited in the waiting room for a few minutes before talking with the doctors. Once we finally got to talk with them, we found out he had a traumatic brain injury, left collar bone broken in 3 places, a puncture wound on his right elbow, and road rash on his left shoulder.
We didn't really know the extent of the brain injury, but it was the kind of thing that could have quickly become fatal. Over the next couple of days, we learned that he had 3 types of brain injuries. Two of them were basically hemorraging, and could cause swelling and become fatal. The third injury is called a diffuse axonal injury (DAI), and is what affects motor control, memory, etc. They monitored the intercranial pressure for a few days, and it never got high, and actually dissipated after the 3rd or 4th day. That allowed us to be at ease about the hemorraging injuries. With the DAI, we won't really know what all is affected until he is fully awake and trying to do things.
After a little improvement on Sunday following the accident, he opened his eyes for the first time. I was in there, and he looked like he looked at me, I asked if he could hear me, and he shook his head yes. I then told him I loved him, and shortly after he faded back off to sleep.
Then, Monday, we found out he had severe pneumonia. This was a huge setback, and he spent the next few days getting worse. Wednesday and Thursday of last week, we were unsure if he would be able to pull through. The cause of the pneumonia was that he had aspirated on the flight, and the matter had rested in his lungs until Monday when they discovered the pneumonia. He was completely out and unresponsive from tuesday afternoon through friday. Finally on friday the nurse got some response from him, and chest x-rays showed that we had made a "speck" of progress on the pneumonia. This was great news.
Throughout the past couple of days, he has continued to improve. Not knowing the extent of the damage is difficult for us, and it will likely be months before we truly know what all it entails. There have been a lot of things to be happy about. He is communicating well with hand signals. He has started mouthing words, and is spending a lot of time awake and alert. He can't talk because of the tracheostomy. He has shown a small amount of reading comprehension. He even was changing channels and manipulating the volume on the TV today. I've asked him about the wreck and he says he remembers. He definitely recognizes his family, and seems to recognize other people too.
We've got a long way to go, but these are some promising signs. They are still trying to determine whether or not to do surgery on the collar bone. Also, we are trying to get him transferred back to CMC Charlotte. We've been living out of a hotel in Columbia for two weeks now, and that just makes things more difficult. He was supposed to be transferred on Wednesday, but the attending doctor did a crappy job of describing his condition, and CMC Charlotte wanted to send him straight to rehab. The doctors here in Columbia think he needs a few more days in the ICU, but they have stepped him down from the trauma ICU to a regular ICU.
Please pray for his continued health and healing. Also, pray for strength and peace for my mom, my wife, and myself. It's really taking a toll on mom, but she can't leave, and I understand why. We've setup a Carepages site if anyone would like to follow along with his progress: www.carespages.com/carepages/MikeKelly You do have to register, but it's free and easy, and they don't spam you. Thanks in advance for the prayers and support. I know this is a great bunch of people here, and I wanted to post sooner, but I just couldn't bring myself to type it out.
The track staff and medical were on it immediately, and the riders behind him responded quickly to slow and get there hands up, and avoid him. He laid unconcious and motionless on the track while they worked on him, and within 30 minutes he was airlifted to Palmetto Health Richland, a level 1 trauma center, in Columbia, SC.
My wife and I were on the way to a marriage conference in Aiken, SC that started at 1:30. We were about 20 miles out of Columbia when we got a call from my mom just before noon. She said "Where are you?" and I could tell from her voice that something was wrong. All she knew is that he had been airlifted to Columbia "richmond" hospital. About that time I saw the sign that said Richland County, and figured out that was probably the name of the hospital. We got to the hospital within minutes of the helicopter. We had no idea what to expect, and I was brought to tears as I was parking the car.
We waited in the waiting room for a few minutes before talking with the doctors. Once we finally got to talk with them, we found out he had a traumatic brain injury, left collar bone broken in 3 places, a puncture wound on his right elbow, and road rash on his left shoulder.
We didn't really know the extent of the brain injury, but it was the kind of thing that could have quickly become fatal. Over the next couple of days, we learned that he had 3 types of brain injuries. Two of them were basically hemorraging, and could cause swelling and become fatal. The third injury is called a diffuse axonal injury (DAI), and is what affects motor control, memory, etc. They monitored the intercranial pressure for a few days, and it never got high, and actually dissipated after the 3rd or 4th day. That allowed us to be at ease about the hemorraging injuries. With the DAI, we won't really know what all is affected until he is fully awake and trying to do things.
After a little improvement on Sunday following the accident, he opened his eyes for the first time. I was in there, and he looked like he looked at me, I asked if he could hear me, and he shook his head yes. I then told him I loved him, and shortly after he faded back off to sleep.
Then, Monday, we found out he had severe pneumonia. This was a huge setback, and he spent the next few days getting worse. Wednesday and Thursday of last week, we were unsure if he would be able to pull through. The cause of the pneumonia was that he had aspirated on the flight, and the matter had rested in his lungs until Monday when they discovered the pneumonia. He was completely out and unresponsive from tuesday afternoon through friday. Finally on friday the nurse got some response from him, and chest x-rays showed that we had made a "speck" of progress on the pneumonia. This was great news.
Throughout the past couple of days, he has continued to improve. Not knowing the extent of the damage is difficult for us, and it will likely be months before we truly know what all it entails. There have been a lot of things to be happy about. He is communicating well with hand signals. He has started mouthing words, and is spending a lot of time awake and alert. He can't talk because of the tracheostomy. He has shown a small amount of reading comprehension. He even was changing channels and manipulating the volume on the TV today. I've asked him about the wreck and he says he remembers. He definitely recognizes his family, and seems to recognize other people too.
We've got a long way to go, but these are some promising signs. They are still trying to determine whether or not to do surgery on the collar bone. Also, we are trying to get him transferred back to CMC Charlotte. We've been living out of a hotel in Columbia for two weeks now, and that just makes things more difficult. He was supposed to be transferred on Wednesday, but the attending doctor did a crappy job of describing his condition, and CMC Charlotte wanted to send him straight to rehab. The doctors here in Columbia think he needs a few more days in the ICU, but they have stepped him down from the trauma ICU to a regular ICU.
Please pray for his continued health and healing. Also, pray for strength and peace for my mom, my wife, and myself. It's really taking a toll on mom, but she can't leave, and I understand why. We've setup a Carepages site if anyone would like to follow along with his progress: www.carespages.com/carepages/MikeKelly You do have to register, but it's free and easy, and they don't spam you. Thanks in advance for the prayers and support. I know this is a great bunch of people here, and I wanted to post sooner, but I just couldn't bring myself to type it out.
