About 10 AM today, June 26, Josiah Hamernick, son of Paula and Joel, and grandson of Tom and Annette Cairns was involved in a serious accident in Glasgow, Kentucky. He had been in Chattanooga, TN for a wedding and was returning to Chicago where he works at Sunshine Gospel Ministry. He was in the town to get a new tire for the motorcycle he was driving, and someone in a Penske rental truck pulled out right in front of him causing Josiah to hit him on the side of the truck.
Josiah was taken to the local hospital and then air evacuated to Nashville to Vanderbilt University Hospital due to severe injuries. He was basically unconscious and has several facial and head fractures and some frontal lobe brain bruising. He is on a ventilator and is intubated and sedated in induced coma. They lighten the sedation periodically to check his neurological status, and he is responding to some commands now, which is better than earlier today. He also has a slightly collapsed lung which doesn’t seem to be too serious.
Paula and Joel had been in Duluth for a wedding and were in Minneapolis briefly when they got the news. They are now driving to Nashville through the night. Two of their other sons are driving down from Chicago as well, all hoping to be there by morning. Meanwhile some of Josiah’s college friends from Chattanooga made it to Nashville and have been standing in until family arrives.
Here’s the local newspaper report about the accident:
http://www.glasgowdailytimes.com/news/man-injured-in-motorcycle-wreck-in-glasgow/article_ce0063ca-5ab5-11e7-bea6-6387eed8d296.html (
http://www.glasgowdailytimes.com/news/man-injured-in-motorcycle-wreck-in-glasgow/article_ce0063ca-5ab5-11e7-bea6-6387eed8d296.html)
Please pray for Josiah for minimal brain damage and for full healing and recovery. Pray for the doctors and decisions they need to make. And pray for Paula and Joel and the whole family as they deal with this crisis and challenge.
