MONDAY EVENING

Well, here it is - Monday evening and I have been left alone to blog. Yikes! So, here goes. First, let me try to fill everyone in on as much as we can piece together of the accident. It happened on Thursday. I had left to head to Glastonbury for the weekend, as per usual. Joe had jumped on the tractor to finish mowing the fields. We have a full sized commercial tractor that is used to cut farm fields. That is about all that is certain, the rest of this we have tried to piece together what Joe was able to tell the EMT's and from what they were able to surmise from checking out the accident scene. Joe had gotten off the tractor to pick up some rocks that were out in front of it. He had parked the tractor sideways to the hill, disengaged it, put the brake on (which was still on even after it took off all the way down the hill and crashed into the woods), so we don't know how or why it started out sideways down the hill and then headed straight down and ran over him. It also apparently dragged him 25 or 30 feet before it either spit him out or he managed to extricate himself. Miraculously, he was still conscious and able to call 911 on his cell phone and tell them exactly where he was. (For those of you who know us, I promise never to complain about the darn cell phone again.) As soon as the paramedics got there, they realized he was seriously injured and immediately called for LifeStar, which air-lifted him to Albany Medical Center. As you might imagine, he is critically wounded with massive injuries. For starters, both lungs were punctured and collapsed. All of his ribs are broken and he has a laceration of the liver. He has a broken pelvis and hip. His right femur is crushed and both legs are broken below the knee with open wounds and compound fractures. He has lost an enormous amount of blood (I think he's been given 9 or 10 units, so far). He is on a respirator and will continue to need ventilator support for a very long time, not only because of the collapsed lungs, but because of all the broken ribs. So, every hour that he survives is a plus for him right now. His first surgery included cleansing of the fractures and cleaning the dirt and grass off the exposed bones and placing external supports on those fractures. And as the orthopedic surgeon said "Oh, yes. His right big toe is broken, but I just slapped a bandage on it. We're not going to worry about that". But there is great concern about infection, including gangrene, to the exposed bones, possibly resulting in the loss of the leg. Meantime, the laceration to the liver seems to have stopped bleeding, so that is good news. He was finally cleared to surgery to replace the hip and hopefully put the rod in the femur. There was a hold-up from the cardiologist because an echocardiogram showed a contusion on the heart. Well, he did not have the surgery on Sunday and they were going to try on Monday. They took him to surgery and brought him back. Apparently, the residents thought he might be able to withstand the surgery, or at least part of it, but when the attending orthopedic surgeon looked at the surgical site, he determined that there was way too much hematoma and blisters and deep tissue damage to even try to make an incision. He said it would be an invitation to disaster - would never heal and way too much chance for infection. So that will have to wait until he is more stable and has done some more healing. For now, he is in traction. We have no idea how long we will be here. Low estimates are at least 6 - 8 weeks in the Surgical ICU. And lots of rehab. We are a long way from that point. Right now, survival is the goal. As we have done for the last few days and will continue to do over the next several months, please pray for and keep Joe in your thoughts. Signing off for now, Cindi