Matthew Morris injured lineman

The first of July Matt will be going back to the hospital to have his ileostomy reversal and close his abdomen back. Here is the story on Matts injury. On January 9th Matt was working in College Station Texas when he had a accident. He was flown by life flight from College Station to Memorial Hermann burn center in Houston. He ended up having 2nd degree burns on his face, ears, neck and chest. On January 11th he was awake and seemed to be doing fine other than some pain in his stomach. Later that day they took him to do a CT scan and when they laid him down on the table he crashed. They ended up putting him in an induced coma to try to let him relax and heal. The ct scan showed his intestines to be swollen, but they didn’t know why yet. On January 15th they took him down for exploratory surgery. When they opened him up they found that part of his intestines had died. This was caused by compartment syndrome caused by the burns. They removed the dead intestines and had to do an ileostomy. The doctors left him open that night because the next day he had to go back in for surgery to make sure they had removed all the dead intestines. When they went back in on the 16th they didn’t find anymore dead intestines but when they tried to close him they weren’t able to because of the swelling. So they left him open with a wound vac. On January 18th they took him off of the paralytic drug they were using to keep him asleep which he was handling well at first, but as he started to wake up and they changed some vent settings he began to breathe over the tube and was fighting it. Because of that, his sedation meds had to be brought back up. They wanted to wake him up very slowly in a way that he didn't fight the tube. He seemed to be intact neurologically so that was an encouraging sign that his reflexes are functioning. The same day, he was running a low-grade fever and he was looking swollen in his hands and feet. His burns were beginning to heal; his lips and ears looked the worst. His chest x-ray looked better although not completely clear yet. On January 21st Matt was awake and not fighting the tube as bad. He is able to communicate although not speak. Approximately 4pm they switched him from intubation over to a tracheostomy. This will allow him to come completely off sedation and have more control over his own breathing. This was the day we found out just how extensive this hospital stay was going to be. Until now we were under the impression that he would have a ileostomy bag for 6 months until they could reconnect his colon. That is not the case. They are not only unable to reconnect his colon, they actually can't close up his abdomen at all for 3-6 months so he will need to remain in the hospital he's at in Houston for the entire time until they can close it and he can fully recover from surgery. This will also require a skin graft to close. Matt won't be able to use his abdominal muscles for at least a year. This significantly extends recovery time. One January 21st he was trying to talk some but he wasn’t actually able to speak with the trach in. He still has a little fluid in his lungs, but not pneumonia now. They were using lasix to get some of the fluid out of his body but are limiting it in order to protect his kidneys. Over the next month Matt improved enough and was able to go home on February 20th with a wound vac. On June 27th he goes back to see his surgeon so they can schedule his surgery to close him complety up and do a ileostomy reversal. We’ve been told the surgery could last up to 12 hours and he could be in the hospital for a month. Because of this I’m going to have to take more time off of work to be with him and when he comes home he’s going to need help getting around. The hospital is 2 1/2 hours from our house so it wouldn’t make sense for me to drive back and forth. Any help would be greatly appreciated and if you can’t help financially prays work tremendously as we have seen first hand with Matt. Thank you and God Bless.
The above picture is from 01/12/19




The above picture was on 01/20/19



The above pictures were on 02/25/19