August 3, 2008

This first post has some background, and something of a description of the accident. Don't expect long winded posts from me or anyone else here. But I thought a little more narrative in this first post might "set the scene."

Sam's brother and mom were in China; Cameron having earned the opportunity to play with his high school band in the Olympic village and some other venues in Beijing. This left Sam footloose and fancy free. Naturally we Echols (cousin, aunt, uncle) decided to invite Sam to visit with us for the weekend. Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the Red Bull Flugtag on the Portland waterfront. Later in the evening, we attended as the Portland Beavers baseball team trounced the Albuquerque Isotopes.

Sunday, we all slept in, had waffles for breakfast, and it was time to take Sam back home. Since the weather was clearing and warming, he and I hopped into the Miata and headed down the road. It was a pretty uneventful trip as far as we got. Plenty of Uncle Patton throwing out ideas for Sam's Flugtag team.

Here's the part where the story gets fuzzy for me. This is not a definitive rendition, not all I remember and there is so much that happened that I do not remember.

About 4 miles outside of Woodburn, I was driving in the fast lane with traffic. It was not very heavy traffic, but not light either, and the far left was overtaking slower cars. From my right, a brown 4 door merged suddenly into my lane and I swerved to avoid a collision. Unfortunately, the hard shoulder had gravel and soon I was down the bank into the soft gravel. Though I attempted to steer back up to the road surface, I could not get the tires to grip and we hit the cable barrier in the median. The next thing I remember there were firefighters on the scene, airbags had blown and there was lots of blood.

Since I am posting, you can probably tell that I am ok. I have some staples in my scalp, rug burn from the airbag, have lost a fair amount of blood and I am predicted sore for awhile. Unfortunately, since I had my own issues, I am probably not the best person to ask, but here is what I know so far, to be updated by those who know better.

Sam's injuries are more serious. The left side of his forehead hit something, we're not sure what. He has a laceration near his left eye and that entire area is swollen and bruised. He also has a fracture to his scull. Most seriously, he has trauma to his brain which has caused it to swell and there is a risk of more swelling. At the moment, he is sedated into a coma, breathing with the help of a ventilator and restrained so that he will not pull out his tubes. There are monitors to measure the pressure inside his scull and if it gets too high, surgery may be needed to relieve the pressure. Basically, it is wait and see for now.

While that sounds perfectly awful, and it is, there is some good news. First, Sam is young, strong and healthy. Second, the doctors periodically reduce the level of his sedation to see how he is doing. He has been able to respond to some voice requests, wiggle fingers and toes and his movements are described as purposeful and coordinated. (While I was there he tried to scratch himself on the chest a couple of times, too bad about that pillow in the way.) Third, Sam's brain pressure is on the lower end of the troublesome scale. All of these things are in his favor.

Also in his favor, as of this posting, mom and bro have arrived from china and the rest of the family is rallying to stay at his side. For those of you who would like to come visit, please don't! While Sam would surely appreciate your support, he is in ICU and they just plain won't let you in. I'm sure that Sam would not want you to make the trip and not be able to see him. However your prayers and well wishes are all appreciated.

-- Patton