Dennis Turner had a motorcycle accident on White Horse Road late today and a car pulled out in front of him. He is in surgery at this time - surgery will take 10 - 12 hours.  More detail will be posted as I find out but PRAY hard.  I do not know for sure but have been told he has a broken back with pelvic and kidney damage..   

Monday  3:30 PM  Dennis is in Critical condition in the ICU unit. At this time they are trying to get together a team of doctors to do surgery on the pelvic area on Thursday and it is going to be a very extensive surgery.  He is moving his arms and legs - he has some tinging in his legs. He is weak on 1 side but they said that is to be expected due to the swelling. This is major body trauma!  It is possible there will be another surgery on his neck to go in from the back side and do more repairs but that is not firm at this time.   
You can post personal messages to Dennis by hitting reply. We will make sure Abbey gets the messages.   If you get information before it gets posted here, please post what you know so we can all stay informed! 

You can send Dennis an e-greeting at the hospital.  Just go to www.ghs.org and click on the area for patient's and visitors tab and then click on visitors and send e-card.  They will print it out and deliver it to Dennis.  I heard tonight that Dennis will be having surgery tomorrow on his pelvis.  Hope all goes well.  Many prayer's are being said for Dennis to have a complete and speedy recovery and many more are needed.

Just got word that Dennis has just now gone into surgery for his pelvic area repair. I was told the surgery will take several hours so when we hear results, they will be posted.

We saw Dennis last night and he was very talkative. He said he could rest later when we commented that we didn't want to tire him out. Dennis had on a neck brace that will probably be his friend for awhile and also had a plastic brace on his stomach area. There are plans to have him sitting up within a day or two. I am sure he will be glad to sit up.
       
Word just in from Bill Holley - he just left from seeing Dennis and they were taking him down to physical therapy!!!

Abbey seems to be holding up pretty good too but she is tired.

More info later....

Nancy, correction to the way to dial a patient room at GMH.  You have to call 455-7000 then dial 8+2426 (Dennis) for the room or if you get a recording follow the instructions in the recording.  Just thought you'd want to know.

Talked to Abbey this afternoon and Dennis actually stood up today.  She said it was an ordeal and it took him longer to get up than he stood up but it was amazing to watch him get through it.  They are putting a trapeze bar above his bed so he can move himself.  They are also talking about putting a transfer bar by the bed so Abbey can help Dennis sit up and stand up but Abbey wants to make sure he is a little more comfortable with the movement before she tries.  She was hoping that tonight they might take off his neck brace. 

Oh how I have missed yall!  I was out of town for a few days and am so glad for the updates from you others. Please keep on posting!!!
Bill, you have a really good point and it is a good idea to already be thinking of ways we will be able to assist them.

I had an update on my e-mail from Abbey earlier today. Here it is...

Well, it's Sunday morning, which means we made it through Saturday. After a rather restless and uncomfortable night on Friday, we had a chance to talk to the doctor Sat. morning about positioning of the Cervical collar and the bed. He told DT just what I had, that the collar can be loosened to be comfortable, as long as he's laying down (in other words, when he stands or walks, it'll need to be tight), and he should lower the bed to make it tolerable. Not getting sleep is worse than having the bed at a lesser angle he said.

We had a great nurse and tech. on duty Saturday. Shannon and her aunt actually acted as though they'd dealt with Orthopedic patients before. They weren't afraid to move him, and so, we were able to give him his first bath in a week. Now, it obviously wasn't a real water bath, but it did get rid of some of the stink.

Between the 3 of us, we were able to roll DT over and take the front and back pieces of his "shell" off, and clean around underneath. Shannon was great and got into all his "cracks", if you know what I mean. We also took the front and back pieces off his collar to redress his incisions. There are times I still think I should have been a nurse......hmmm!

They sent a little girl from PT to get DT up and on the walker. Turns out, I had come to talk to one of her amputee patients about a year ago, and she remembered me.....small world! By the time DT got himself sitting on the side of the bed, then put feet on the floor with the walker, he was whipped! After he took a minute to catch his breath, he layed back down for a little nap.

Having the freedom to change the bed angles a little more, and the fit of the collar a little more up to him, made Sat. night a little quieter. Jeff Gordon winning the race did not!!! I'm not sure how much he actually slept, but I think he was at least a little more comfortable.

I have spent the night by his bedside since he's been in a room. At this point, I'm not sure I really need to be here, other than, he's asked me to stay. I am working on being able to sleep at home tonight....that would be a treat!!!

Today's issue looks like IV lines. We have not been able to draw blood from DT's arms. First they were really swollen, now I think all his veins have just collapsed. They have sent special lab techs. to get blood, and there's been little success.

His last remaining IV just died, and they can't get a new line in. Looks like they will ask the Doctor to order a PIC line. That way, they can give him all his IV meds (Morphine) and, be able to draw blood. Not sure why they didn't do this from the start.

If I had to guess, I would say DT is waiting for the cute little PT girl to make it down this way. Right now, that's the highlite of his day.....

More later,
Abbey


"IT'S A GOOD LIFE"           Click on page 2 below for further updates.....