The Helmet did its job.

My older brother got himself pretty dinged up in a bike wreck on Friday. I happened to work in the ER where he was taken. My shifts are usually 7-7 either 7am to 7pm or 7pm to 7am. This particular shift was until 7pm. I came out of a patient's room around 6:15 and found a few nurses and other staff members staring at me and asked me to walk down the hall with them. I thought they were taking me to administration because I'd gotten in trouble again. Nope. My brother (not the shop brother) was riding his bike and crashed. 


He kept telling them to get Lucy like they should know who Lucy was even though he didn't even know his own last name. It turns out I was just down the hall. So I go to see him in the trauma bay and he's is pretty banged up - a small, nondisplaced basilar skull fracture which caused bleeding in his left ear, the only ear he can really hear out of, R clavicle fracture, and the most serious injury, a R acetabular fracture. The acetabular fracture of the hip is the worst problem. The orthopedic surgeon says he'll get back on his bike again, but it will be awhile.


Please forgive me if I haven't called everyone. I really wanted to know what the plan was before I called people. He's been in the ICU and you can't really visit there very much and you can't be there when the doctors round. Also he just wants to sleep so there is no advantage to being there with him. If it was John (the shop brother) in the ICU, he would want me at the bedside as a security thing, but Ben doesn't really care. So in other words, I don't know the plan yet, probably because the doctors don't know exactly when his hip surgery will be. 


Just to let you know that he is fine - his sense of humor has not left him. He says the nurses need a calendar because they keep asking him what year it is. He wondered how they could take care of patients if they don't even know what year it is. He told Randy "All in all, I wished it hadn't happened." He does ask some repetitive questions, but considering that at first yesterday, he couldn't even tell anyone his last name, that's pretty good. Also he cannot remember anything about the bike crash. He has no idea what happened.


He's got a good team of surgeons - the trauma team is following him, but they will not have to operate on him, neurosurgery, orthopedics and even ENT. Only the ortho guys will have to operate. 


Tomorrow he goes to a floor bed and either Kathy or I will stay most of the time with him. That way when the surgeons come by we can talk to them directly. 


I will call more people tomorrow. Again, please forgive me for not calling sooner. Yesterday was exhausting, today was also and I have to work a 12h overnight tomorrow. But you can see that the helmet did exactly what it was supposed to do.