Cliff Youngblut Cliff Youngblut

So as many of you already know Cliff was in a accident on Thursday June 30th around 3:30 pm.  His truck was hit by semi on the passenger side.  He was taken to Allen hospital where it was decided right away that he would need to go to Iowa City.  AJ, Amanda, Kayla, and I were able to make it to Allen hospital before he left for Iowa City.  They had to take him by ambulance because of the weather.  All five of us arrived about the same time as the ambulance.  Mom and Dad were still on vacation so they were not able to get there right away.  It took several hours for us to get any information.  Before mom and dad arrived the doctors did speak to AJ, Kayla and me twice.  All they could tell us is that he had a traumatic head injury and that they had to get the pressure off his brain.  They started several procedures and medications to start this process.  When mom and dad arrived at 11:30 pm none of us had been able to see him.  Shortly after they arrived, mom and dad  were finally able to see him.  Right now it is a waiting game.  So please continue to pray and pray often.  Here is what we know at this time.  He has a large laceration on  his left leg.  The cut went down to his bone.  He has damage to his right eye, but we have no idea the extent until he is able to respond.  The main concern though is his brain.  He is not responding to verbal commands at this point, but does have some movement when he receives pain tests.  When they cause him pain he will move his arms some, and try to open his left eye.  He also coughs when the sedation is low or off.  He is breathing on this own, but they do have a breathing tube hooked up to help him take deeper breathes.  The pressure on his brain has been a large concern, but it is coming down.  It has been as high as 27, but today one of the readings was as low as 14.  Right now they are only checking this pressure every 4 hours.  When they are not checking it they are letting it drain out a port.  Right now they are keeping him heavily sedated when they are not running tests.  They are mainly just trying to keep him comfortable and let his brain rest.  At this point we really do not know his prognosis.  We will update any new information when possible, but it is very slow going at this point.  Please just continue to pray.