Harris family
The first response came from one of Vic’s old colleagues, Annie Russell, who hadn’t been in touch with Dad for a long time but she had a caring heart. Maybe it had to do with the thirty years of service they both gave to Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Thanks so much for the update. It is considerate of you.
Thinking of you and your family a lot. Wish I could do something useful! Have everything crossed.
Love to you,
Annie
My family was five days into the nightmare at this stage and the emails kept rolling in from far and wide.
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Dear Vic, Deb, Nicole and Brett,
I am so terribly sorry about Scott’s accident and its ongoing distress for you all. I can only imagine how horrific it is. You have all (and Scott too of course) been much on my mind and I am sending you all my best wishes and hopes that soon you can have the news you so want to hear; that he is going to be just fine.
May it be so.
Lots of love,
Cath
After a gruelling week my family was told that my state had stabilised and that the doctors were thinking of reducing the medication that was keeping me in a vegetative state. The first battle in this war was almost half over; the next unknown was whether or not I would actually wake up.
As a kid, I was always the last one at the kitchen table to finish my dinner. While Brett and Nicole were watching TV, or fighting, or having fun, I was still eating my meal. I wasn’t fussy, in fact there wasn’t a food I wouldn’t eat, but, to put it simply, I was painfully slow. So, knowing I was naturally a slow kid, my family just applied that to my waking up. A week later I began to come to the party – fashionably late, but I was getting there.
Saturday, 22 November 2008
Hi all,
It’s been a very long and, at times, a very slow-moving week. Firstly, thank you all for your kind wishes and offers of help etc. I can assure you that it is greatly appreciated. Friends and family are very important at this stage. We have received many calls and I apologise if we have either gotten back to you late or in some cases missed you in the net.
The week has been a contradiction of sorts. Nothing much to report but lots of small forward and promising moves.
The situation in ICU is that if your condition is stable and another emergency arises your needs move down the list. So this week has seen Scott’s face reconstructed with eleven metal plates inserted. He has remained on the ventilator and heavily (very) sedated with a tube down his throat delivering oxygen. Attempts were to be made during the week to remove this tube but to date this has still not happened. Why? Very complicated but briefly, this will not happen until the orthopaedic surgeon is happy with the condition of Scott’s neck.They wish to ascertain whether or not there is any ligament damage. Apparently, these ligaments are attached to the bone and, if damaged, present issues for the bone to move; it could possibly cause problems with the spinal cord.
So we have catch 22. Can’t remove breathing tube until this is cleared, Scott can’t have the tube in without being sedated because of the choking sensation etc., etc. Thus, he has been heavily sedated forwhat feels to us to be an eternity. Until he comes off sedation we are not in a position to assess his overall state of health. That will come when the doctors can ask Scott questions and assess his condition by responses given. Yes, we are frustrated but I guess the longer heis sedated the better chance of stabilising his condition. There have been moments throughout the week that give us hope that he will pull through in some way. How well? Nobody can say, so we can only hope and pray for the best possible. When sedation has been reduced there has been movement (strong on his left side, which is his dominant, and not so strong on the right). He tries to remove the tube at times andhe has squeezed hands in recognition of us being there with him. So where are we at the end of week one?
1 Scott’s still with us.
2 He is moving slightly.
3 His face is looking good. Surgeons have done a marvellous job.
4 Getting ourselves ready for week 2++++??
Our routine is basically get up and go in around 9.30–10.00 am for a couple of hours. Come home, answer calls etc., have a rest and then go back in around 6.00 pm and stay until whenever depending on Scott’s state of awareness. While in the hospital it’s mobiles off, so if you wish to get through to us the best times would be mid-afternoon and around 9–9.30 pm, if you want more than I can give via this email. Feel free to pass this info on to any other interested party not currently on my email group list. Drop me an email address of anyone who wishes
to be added to the mailing list. This way I feel as though there is a consistent message feeding out to all rather than having it interpreted differently along the way then passed on to others incorrectly.
Regards,
Harris family
The return of the test results were bad enough to cause worry in the Harris camp, but the positive news was that the doctors knew more about the damage that had been done and felt they could fix it. I had sustained two broken neck vertebrae and major ligament damage to the base of my skull, which was enough to warrant panic – they decided a serious procedure was in order.
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Hi all,
We spoke to the orthopaedic surgeon tonight and she confirmed from the MRI that there was ligament damage at the base of Scott’s skull.
The ligament has torn away from the bone and has left a fracture in C5 and C6 vertebrae. The way forward now is to place a ‘halo’ around his head attaching it to his skull and this will in turn be attached to a body harness of sorts to hold his head and neck secure until the damage repairs. This procedure will be done tomorrow morning and the halo will stay on for some six to twelve weeks. In the event that the damage does not heal, then fusion will be the next option. Fusion would require the joining of a couple of vertebrae close to his skull which would in turn cause some restricted movement but not severe. At this stage
once this has been done they will then turn their attention to gradually waking him up and hopefully removing the breathing tube. What they don’t want to do is remove it and then find that they have to reinsert it. I guess we are now buckled in for the long haul. Goodnight all.
Regards,
Harris family
Everyone wanted updates, but it was very hard to provide them when not much was happening. Vic didn’t want to just put down verbal diarrhoea in his emails, so until anything happened, there was not much he could say.
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Hi all,
Guess you have been wondering where the updates have gone. Sorry, but sometimes it’s a little hard to keep upbeat when there’s not a lot happening. For the past few days Scott has been a little stubborn. Not wanting to do the things that we want in the time frame that would suit us. He has appeared to be well and truly in a world of his own, doing as he wants when he wants. Today we were greeted with a nurse that told us that she had not witnessed any responses during her shift and that left us a little despondent. She