- A
- R
- M
Grayson was in a horrible accident at home Sunday, March 22. He was impaled with a fiberglass tent support pole - it went into his right eye socket and all the way to the back of his skull on the left side.
The boys were playing. Dylan came to get me and said something about zombies getting Grayson. I looked up and Gray looked like he was sitting Indian style slumped forward with his arm up towards his head and the tent pole sticking out.
It looked like he was pretending, so we yelled for him with no response. Once I got to him, I was shocked to see the pole coming from his right eye. I couldn't tell if he was breathing from his position. I carefully rolled him over and he took some good breaths for me. I scooped him up and got to my phone to call 911. He did start fighting me some and trying to speak incoherently.
We went to Christus Marshall by ambulance and they sedated and intubated him and did initial fast images. It was apparent the pole was all the way in his brain.
Due to weather we had trouble getting transport anywhere. Finally LSU Shreveport accepted us and Marshall fire took us by ambulance with a Marshall police escort the whole way.
Every one of the first responders and Marshall ER staff were amazing and we can't thank them enough. Once at Shreveport they did a full CT and prepared for surgery. Again the staff was great helping us through the unknown.
Because of COVID19, only one of us could stay with him. Surgery was done to remove the tent pole. It missed so many vital things .There is some damage to the ventricles and thalamus plus the tissue in the right and just hemispheres where the pole traveled, but it could have been so much worse.
His eye is also intact although we won't know about muscle damage there until he can respond to commands and look around, but they don't think there is a lot of damage based on CT scan and no ocular muscle entrapment that they could see on exam after his brain surgery.
They did have to make a bigger bone flap on the right side of his skull due to the extent of swelling by the time we got to surgery. Overall, they felt that while the brain tissue is angry as expected, it wasn't as severe as many cases and even at this first step they were hopeful for his chance of recovery.
Now we are just waiting and letting his body rest and heal. Each day feels like an eternity but we continued to get good reports and mild improvements each day.
Grayson's birthday is Friday.
The boys were playing. Dylan came to get me and said something about zombies getting Grayson. I looked up and Gray looked like he was sitting Indian style slumped forward with his arm up towards his head and the tent pole sticking out.
It looked like he was pretending, so we yelled for him with no response. Once I got to him, I was shocked to see the pole coming from his right eye. I couldn't tell if he was breathing from his position. I carefully rolled him over and he took some good breaths for me. I scooped him up and got to my phone to call 911. He did start fighting me some and trying to speak incoherently.
We went to Christus Marshall by ambulance and they sedated and intubated him and did initial fast images. It was apparent the pole was all the way in his brain.
Due to weather we had trouble getting transport anywhere. Finally LSU Shreveport accepted us and Marshall fire took us by ambulance with a Marshall police escort the whole way.
Every one of the first responders and Marshall ER staff were amazing and we can't thank them enough. Once at Shreveport they did a full CT and prepared for surgery. Again the staff was great helping us through the unknown.
Because of COVID19, only one of us could stay with him. Surgery was done to remove the tent pole. It missed so many vital things .There is some damage to the ventricles and thalamus plus the tissue in the right and just hemispheres where the pole traveled, but it could have been so much worse.
His eye is also intact although we won't know about muscle damage there until he can respond to commands and look around, but they don't think there is a lot of damage based on CT scan and no ocular muscle entrapment that they could see on exam after his brain surgery.
They did have to make a bigger bone flap on the right side of his skull due to the extent of swelling by the time we got to surgery. Overall, they felt that while the brain tissue is angry as expected, it wasn't as severe as many cases and even at this first step they were hopeful for his chance of recovery.
Now we are just waiting and letting his body rest and heal. Each day feels like an eternity but we continued to get good reports and mild improvements each day.
Grayson's birthday is Friday.