Jeff Wetzel

On Friday, March 23, about 6:30 p.m., Jeff was in an accident and had to be airlifted to Centerpoint Hospital in Independence, Missouri.  He was evaluated by the trauma team and was found to have 2 broken legs.  The right leg was broken in 3 places, including the knee and had a large, deep, gaping wound.  The left leg was broken in 2 places.  Both legs had some nerve damage and all breaks were from the knee down.  Because of the wound and the severity and multiple breaks he was immediately taken into surgery.  They placed external fixators on both legs to immobilize them and bring the bones together from the outside of his body.  They debrided and scrubbed the wound and cleaned up his abrasions.  I arrived about 1:30 a.m. with Dylan who drove me in the rain, while I called on many of you to be our prayer warriors!  nick was working when we got the call so he stayed home with Jynn (our dog) and waited to come.  We were finally able to see him about 3:30 a.m.  He looked a lot better than we anticipated and were thankful to hear that he had never lost consciousness and although was in shock at the accident was doing remarkably well.  He was talking and alert when we saw as he came out of recovery.  The informed us that he had sustained very serious injuries and the most concerning was the deep wound which they had placed a wound vac on to get blood to the injured tissue.  The nurse urged Dylan and I to look at his legs and while there was a lot of damage it was not scary looking and we were amazed at the skilled hands of the surgeon.


He was to be monitored daily to see how the tissue was healing and if it was living or dying and that would affect the next steps.  If the tissue was doing well, he would undergo another surgery early in the week to move the external fixators to internal nails/pins/plates.  if the tissue was not doing well he might need plastic surgery to make a skin flap.  The worst case scenario was they mentioned there was a slight chance if the tissue died he may be looking at an amputation.  The trauma team, trauma surgeon, and trauma ortho surgeon were fantastic and we immediately felt confident in their abilities.  The nursing staff has been some of the best any of us have ever experienced!  


Many of you waited all night for an update and I tried my best to keep you all informed but we were emotionally and physically exhausted and finally got to a hotel after 4 a.m. and I was able to manage about 2.5 hours sleep.  The heavens were being stormed for God's protection and provision over Jeff and our entire family and God did not disappoint!


PLEASE RESPECT the fact that we are not listing a lot of details about the accident.  I am not talking about this on FB.  This is a work accident and of course has to be investigated so we ask that you are careful how you share this.  It is not confidential but we also don't want rumors and information out there that is not accurate nor do we want comments about what we should or should not do; none of that is helpful.  This has impacted so many of us from our family, our friends, Jeff's co-workers, our church, my co-workers.   We are trusting God and asking for His direction as we move forward.