Hey guys. This is Gusty, Occam's wife, and we're asking for help on behalf of my sister and family. Last Friday my sister was in a traumatic single-car accident on her way to work that resulted in injuries requiring multiple surgeries. She is a young new mom to a four-month old and will be unable to work for an unknown amount of time. I am not the best when it comes to medical terms so please bear with me. I'll post her 3D pelvic x-ray below from before the surgery. She had multiple pelvic fractures, some of which include part of her left wing of her pelvis completely breaking off, her left pubis and ischium breaking from the rest of the left side of her pelvis, and she had another pelvic fracture on her right side that required surgery as well. There are also a large amount of small fractures that did not require surgery. She has L3 to L5 fractures that they've said will not require surgery but are going to cause her pain. She had emergency surgery on Friday for internal bleeding at the pelvic area and they did not realize until Saturday night that her intestines were severed so she had emergency surgery for that as well. The valve connecting her small and large intestines had severed and parts of her intestines were "dead" so they had to remove that and put them back together. She is still on a wound vac for that and has a tube in her nose going to her stomach that is digesting for her, so she has been unable to eat. They thought she could try eating liquid food yesterday, since she showed signs of digestion (a fart), but the liquid food she ate did not end up digesting so they had to put the tube back in her stomach and we're waiting on results of another x-ray. When they did the intestine surgery they sewed up everything but the skin, so she will still need to get that done. Her pelvic surgery was on Monday to put screws in the major fracture areas. We were told it would be around two hours but it ended up being nearly five hours of surgery. They did a CT scan immediately after she had woken up from the anesthesia. That CT is all we've been able to look at, and with the CT it's difficult to see the full extent of what the screws look like. We have unfortunately not gotten to speak to the surgeon directly since the surgery but got a brief overview from the ICU doctor and from someone who was in the OR (I don't know their title), and they said it went well. She is unable to put any pressure on her right leg for at least 6 weeks and left leg for at least 12 weeks. She, her boyfriend, and their baby live in an upstairs apartment and will not have a downstairs apartment available for at least 6 months. They are going to move into my mom's house indefinitely but some areas will not be wheelchair accessible, including the bathroom. We spoke with a social worker about a rehab facility but she said it's uncommon for them to take in someone who is unable to use both legs, so we may end up needing to do in-home care. We have not been able to see the car yet, we just know it's a total loss. We haven't seen it in person or even a picture, but a family friend found at least 18 pieces of the car at the crash site. We are so grateful that she is with us, and that did not suffer any head injuries, but we still have a long road ahead of us. We still don't know how long she'll be in the hospital, if she needs another surgery on her intestines, and ultimately only time will tell when she will be able to fully walk again and be able to work. She is going to need a lot of therapy for what she's been through. Her boyfriend has taken unpaid time off work to be with her every moment possible while she's in the hospital but he will be the sole provider for a while. We are helping wherever and however we can, but anything helps, which is why I've created this. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
Artículos relacionados
