Haiden's medical and recovery
On September 21st, 2016 at 1:29am I received the worst phone call in my life. It was an officer calling to inform me that my little brother had been found in the road from an apparent hit and run, and was on his way to Harborview from Cle Elum. He was on his way walking home when he was hit from behind by an unknown car or truck and left to die in the road. His body was found in between the two Safeway entrances on the Cashmere Valley Bank side of the road. The lady who found him parked her truck in front of him so he wouldn’t be hit again. She ran to Safeway to get more help and call 911, thank god they found him since it was only 37 degrees out that night and he would have for sure not made it! They have no idea how long he was laying in the road, or if he had gotten dragged there by the vehicle, or if he tried to stagger there after being hit to try and get help before collapsing. The police are still investigating and searching for the person who left him cold, disoriented and bleeding to death and if anyone has heard or seen anything please call the Cle Elum police department with any information!
My brother's name is Haiden Asher Johnson, he is a bright young 24 year old and is one of the most caring, selfless and polite humans I've ever had the chance to meet. He has the reputation around town in fact for just being an all around good guy. He and I work at the Caboose together and are far more than just siblings and coworkers, but are the bestest of friends as well as live together at my home, so this is going to change our lives completely. We love him so much and are so thankful to have him alive, the doctors have told us it's a miricle he is because most cases of people vs vehicles do not survive! He is not going to be able to work for at least the next 6 months to a year and is going to need all around care and physical therapy when he is finally discharged. He still has multiple surgeries to do before they even consider letting him leave and after those they will determine if they are going to let him actually come home, or if he may require a rehab facility at some point when it comes time for him to learn how to walk again.
Haiden's injuries currently include 2 skull fractures (which originally caused 2 brain bleeds, one in the front and one in the back, that have as of yesterday 9/23 not continued to grow) both eye sockets have multiple fractures, sinuses/cheek bones are shattered, nose is broken, they are checking his jaw for fractures because he's having a very hard time eating and his mouth is numb and hurts more than they would expect, as well as a few broken teeth. He has a broken right collar bone, and a shattered left hand and wrist as well as that same arm is fractured. Bruised lungs, kidneys, and a lacerated liver. He's having some hearing diffuculties which hopefully will improve when some swelling goes down and some double vision. He came in with an open fracture that had a gash of about 6 inches by 3 inches on his left ankle which we have since learned was dislocated and shattered (basically was just hanging on to his body still by a bit of flesh) as well as his knee on that side is seperated from his tibia and needs to be realigned. Basically his whole left side and head where ran over and smashed by whoever did this to him.
For some reason his blood levels keep dropping and they are not entirely sure why but are watching it very closely. So far while he has been here he has had a surgical clean out on the open fracture on his ankle (they thought he would only need 2 surgeries on it but after getting into it they have told us its going to need at the very least 3 surgeries, one of which should include putting his knee back hopefully). He has since been moved out of the ICU and is scheduled on Monday to get his second surgery on that ankle. He had surgery yesterday on his shattered wrist/hand/arm and now has a plate with 9 pins holding it all together. He has had 3 blood transfusions and are waiting to find out if he's going to need more. The list keeps growing day by day of what kind of procedures he's going to need and what kind of care he is going to need by the time he gets home.
We've heard he could be coming home as soon as Wednesday but thats still being determined, most likely he will be here for at least another week but it all comes down to how the surgery on Monday goes, getting his blood levels under control and how he handles the physical therepy they are going to start tomorrow. We now have a lot of preparation that needs to get done on our end as well to make sure we're all set for when he gets to come home, which includes getting a wheelchair, making a wheelchair ramp so he can get in and out of the house, renting a hospital bed, and getting any other kind of equipment he's going to need for the next few months that we know he's going to have issues mobilizing.
Haiden would be elligible to have his injuries covered if the person who hit him is caught and prosecuted, but the way its looking its not sounding like thats going to happen since we live in such a little town with little information about what happened to him. That leaves all of the costs and care left on my family to try to take care of what insurance doesn't. Its a very scary future we have ahead of us, but we're a strong family and know we can pull through with all the love and support we have for each other but I'm not going to lie, this is going to be very difficult on us all. If anyone has been touched by this story or has any information on the case and would feel compelled to help us we would be so appreciative! Haiden is a wonderful young man with a lot of life ahead of him and lot of healing to do. Any little bit helps and everytime this is shared we get a little closer to finding him some kind of closure to this horrible thing that has happened to him.
Thank you so much for taking your time to read this and sharing! We love you all so much and are so thankful for every bit of help durring this most difficult time!
Love from the family of Haiden Asher
Kelsea-sister
Jennifer and David - Mom and Dad
