Jim Morris - updates

Ok - we went to see him this morning, but he was getting the CT scan and then heading off to the eye theatre to do the surgery to see what the extent of the damage is.

Later we went back to the eye operating theatre, as they wanted to discuss the eye options. So the news is that he has lost vision in the right eye, but the left seems OK so far. There’s bleeding, but it seems OK.

This evening, we saw him. Sedated, but responding. The swelling seems to be going down around his head. Eyes bandaged, but swelling on the mouth down a bit as well.

Brain function - can’t assess until he’s off sedation but he has to be sedated as they don’t want him to move and upset the fractured bones in the head/face.

Lungs are healing. They are working on weaning him.

Abdomen looks OK on first glance. Need radiologist’s report to be sure, though.

Overall, a positive day.

He had some issues with his breathing tube. So - They had to do emergency trach and manual ventilation- atropine to increase heart rate during possible low O2 state. Some blood may have gone into the lungs.
They told us that being on a ventilator is very serious - 50% survival rate. Things happen all the time and can change from minute to minute.

Since he was unstable again, the planned procedures couldn’t take place. So - Eye ppl to see if they can do the surgery tomorrow. They also want to do some CT scans - the abdomen, brain and face (3D).

So overall, it’s been a small setback but still +ve

Blood count realtively high now. Interesting as mine never gets that high!
Clotting is fine. Going in for trach and poss eye at 1 pm - should be out by 4:30pm

Eventually didn’t go in as there were some emergencies. He’s just resting and getting stable.

Here are the verbatim notes I took on Tuesday am

ICU gets new consultants on Mondays for the week. So we met the new ones.

No brain bleeding, but some mild edema.

He’s had a lot of blood loss. About half his body’s blood volume was lost in the accident. So he’s had several transfusions to get his blood count up and stabilised.

No blood in stomach or mouth, so negative on internal bleeding.. Also got plasma last night for clotting. Pressure is stable.

There is some air in space under his skin. Surgical emphysema. Can’t see suspected fractured rib on xray so will get radiologist to look and see.

Lung contusions. Not too much blood in the lungs, so that’s good.

They want to do a tracheotomy to protect his airway .

Left eye seems ok. Right eye might be punctured.

Sedated because restless - moving all limbs, though, and responding to requests - like - squeeze my hand.
No feeding because bowels sluggish, but stomach seems fine.

Neck is fine.
Still critical.

Hi Sorry
I have not been able to post recently - I think you can figure out why..
Where we are now is that:
he’s in ICU.
He’s critical
He needs blood and stuff cause his pressure fluctuates but is running low. His platelet count is down and his blood count is low.
He’s on the life support machines to help his lungs rest. There is some small improvement in the lungs, but nothing concrete yet.
Basically, he’s in bad shape, but holding on. They are trying to stabilise him before doing anything at all to fix him.
He is sedated and unconscious.