Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.
I want to start this story with a huge thanks to everyone for all your prayers and kind words of support for the Blairs. As many of you know, Jimmy is in the hospital recovering from injuries he sustained in an ATV accident on Saturday. He was initially taken to Bronson Hospital in Kalamazoo, but has since been transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital where they have assembled a spectacular team of doctors and nurses that are caring for him. Jimmy is progressing well and is improving by the day. The swelling is starting to subside and he responds well to verbal and visual directions. His positive progress to date is a clear testament to the grace of God and the incredible power of prayer and the loving support of friends and family. As Jim told me earlier this week, from the beginning, they have gotten positive comments on the most important issues and have the best of the best working on the more complicated ones. Jimmy's vital signs are very good and he is breathing on his own. Last night, he was able to communicate that he wants his friends to break him out of the hospital. From what we know thus far, Jimmy did not sustain any serious injuries below his head and neck. He can move all of his limbs and lift himself up to reposition himself in the bed. Donna and Jim have been incredibly positive and strong throughout the process. One of the first things Donna told me hours after the accident was that Jimmy is a fighter and that he will overcome this. Clearly, Donna and Jim's courage and spirit are inside Jimmy as you can see from his determination to recover and get back to hanging out with his friends and family. The Blairs are overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support and prayers they have received from everyone. We will post updates to this site as they develop. Please continue to pray for a full recovery for Jimmy. As I was writing this, I looked back at a video from a hockey interview of Jimmy in his senior year at Fenwick:
http://video.blackhawks.nhl.com/videocenter/console?id=785514&lang=en. At the end of the interview, Jimmy said that his favorite hockey player is Andrew Shaw because he is a grinder and "that's my style of play -- he is a tough dude." Donna was certainly right when she said Jimmy is a fighter and he is definitely one tough dude!
