Bartolome Cajas

On 12/20/17, Bart was involved in a car accident near his home in Chandler, Arizona. He was taken to Chandler Regional Medical Center and they determined that he had a spinal fracture. Just a few short hours after being admitted, he experienced a Code Blue (his heart stopped). After he was revived, he was moved up to the Trauma ICU and intubated immediately. While in the ICU, chest x-rays indicated he had secretions in his lungs and the doctor was concerned that he would develop pneumonia. Luckily, he has not shown any sign of pneumonia so far!

On Christmas Day, he removed his breathing tube for the 2nd time (he's a feisty one!) and the family needed to make some quick decisions. After some discussion, we decided to move forward with a tracheostomy. The surgery took place on 12/27/17 and was successful! They also gave him a feeding tube so he could continue to receive nutrition.  On Friday 12/29/17, he was moved to a long term acute rehab facility - Promise Hospital of Phoenix in Mesa, AZ.

Since arriving at Promise, he has been improving. The respiratory therapists and nurses are working to wean him off of the ventilator. Each day, he spends time breathing on his own (ventilator turned off; oxygen still being provided) so his lungs can get stronger! He has been able to communicate with some gestures and short notes, but he will not be able to speak until he can successfully use a PMV (Passy-Muir Valve).  He will work with speech therapy to speak and do some swallowing therapy as well.

Physical therapy has been working with him doing some bed-level, range of motion exercises.  When he is able to be upright, he will be wearing a back brace that will aid in healing the spinal fracture injury from the accident. When we hold his hand, he is able to squeeze pretty hard!  He is very eager to get his strength back and come home. 

I will do my best to update this journal at least once a week, so please check back!