Dylan moved to Abilene Texas 3 months ago to help me take care of a new baby. He arrived just in time to rush me to the hospital where I delivered a healthy beautiful baby girl. Dylan decided he would stay in Abilene and immediately got a job with Texas Roadhouse full time and a part time job at a local bar. He was on his way to purchasing his first home in about 6 months.

On August 22 of this year two police men knocked on my door. The knock every parent fears. To tell me my son was in a serious car accident and I needed to get to the hospital. I remember telling my self the whole way there that he probably wasn’t that serious and would be just fine. After arriving and being ushered to a private waiting room. My stomach started to sink. This didn’t seem like a small accident. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity two doctors came into speak with me. He has several broken bones. His femur, his knee cap on his other leg, several ribs and a broken vertebrae in his back. Then more. His liver is shatter and his spleen is ruptured his lung is collapsed and he isn’t breathing on his own. He was rushed into immediate surgery to stabilize what needed to be stabilized at that exact moment. He was internally bleeding.

When I met with Dylan after surgery he was intubated and other than the tubes coming out of his mouth I felt like he looked “pretty good” for all these injuries they said he had.

The feeling that he looked pretty good didn’t last long when they start telling me the gravity of the situation. The first surgery on his femur was just a few days later. After his vitals were stable enough to operate. His femur was in pieces. One piece had broken through the thigh. One piece was not connected to any soft tissue and had to be completely removed. The knee cap on the left was stabilized and all of us felt good going into the next surgery a few days later.

Dylan spiked a very high (45,000) white blood cell count (which means infection) and it wasn’t ideal to preform surgery but they had to. They cut Dylan open from his belly button to his sternum. They packed the liver with sponges to bring all the pieces back together. The spleen was removed. This is when they found new and just as serious problems. His pancreas was also severely damaged suffering blunt force trauma in the crash and leaking enzymes into his abdominal cavity. They also found tears to the small and large intestines. Those were a stitched close. His abdominal wound was left open. The ventilator was left on him.

They have since gone in and removed the sponges and closed up his incision but they also found that a bile duct on his liver was also leaking enzymes into his abdomen. It has been a week since this last surgery was preformed. Dylan has remained on a ventilator since. He is unaware that his muscles in his chest aren’t strong enough to support him breathing on his own.

Standing next to my sons bed yesterday and silently celebrating his 22nd birthday with him on a ventilator was awful. The mixed emotions of being truly heartbroken and hopeful all mixed in one.

Dylan has been in ICU for two weeks. Most of that time completely intubated. We are hoping to wake him up on the next few days and keep him off the ventilator. He needs at least one more surgery on his broken vertebrae and one more procedure to remove the stent in his liver. Dylan is going to be moved to another ward of the hospital when he is strong enough. Physical therapy will start on his legs. Then he will be moved to a long term care facility before he can come home. He will recover in time. Lots and lots of time. With his insurance his out of pocket medical expenses are going to exceed $10,000.

As is today, Sept 5, Dylan’s white blood cells are down to 23,000 so his antibiotics are working. He is holding a strong blood pressure on his own which he wasn’t able to do a few days ago. His fever is breaking and his heart rate is good. Once we wake him up and take the ventilator off we will know if he is able to breath on his own.