LADDER FALL CAUSES SERIOUS INJURIES

Scott, like many of us Midwesterners do, especially, on an unseasonably warm December day, hurry to attempt to take advantage of it by working on a home improvement project like touch-up painting our homes before the consistently severe cold and snow sets in.

Also, like many of us we hit our thumbs with our hammers, bruise ourselves unknowingly by bumping into something we didn't see, spill paint, trip while carrying a two by four and so forth.

Although these things can be painful in various ways we typically look back on them as a minor consequence of tackling do-it-yourself projects.

We, typically, never think the worse; that we could be seriously injured.

We just enjoy the sense of accomplishment that progressing on a home improvement goal brings.

I am sure that Scott started his Saturday "labor of love" with the intent to improve his wife's and his home when the worse or at least close to the worse happened: A slip led to a roughly eighteen foot fall from his ladder onto their concrete sidewalk breaking his upper arm, shoulder and collar bones on one side, two ribs that in turn caused a small lung puncture, and the most concerning was a brain hemorrhage and two skull fractures accompanied by bleeding from his ears, a large gnash in the back of his head, and a good portion of his head on one side being swollen.

The brain hemorrhage necessitated Scott being flown to The University of Iowa Hospitals' emergency room because the local hospitals and doctors weren't equipped to cope with that severe of head trauma.

As many of you that have had severe head trauma, broken bones, and the related ligament, tendon, muscle, nerve, and often overlooked and underestimated emotional damage associated with severe head trauma due to blunt force injuries can attest to, and empathize and sympathize with the recovery and rehabilitation time and process being painful and extensive.

What patients universally, and, Scott, specifically, absolutely need under such circumstances is a lot of rest and freedom to heal away from the financial pressures that missing work bring.

Any amount you can contribute to help provide that for Scott would be greatly appreciated by him. He'd be the first to do that for you, if the shoe were on the other foot or more specifically in this case, the head and body trauma was on the other heads and bodies.