On her birthday, Tuesday, January 21st, 2020, Laura went rollerblading to celebrate in the late morning. On the Veloway trail in Austin, Texas, she was going too fast down a hill, fell, and hit her head on a rock. A bicyclist came across her where she was still conscious and called for an ambulance. She was transported to St. David’s in South Austin where she had a CT scan that indicated a large sub-dermal hematoma on the left side of her head. From the time of the accident to the time of her surgery was around an hour. Since then, they’ve done MRIs and CTs and discovered she also has a left clavicle fracture and 2 fractured ribs.
January 23 the Nurse Practitioner removed the draining tube in her which means that there is no longer any excess bleeding in the brain. She is responding to pain stimulation on both sides of her body, but her right side is weaker than her left. The doctors also notice a minor fracture on her right occipital bone (eye bone) so a black eye is beginning to form.
January 25 the doctors did another CT scan and noticed a small stroke on the right side of her brain, but say that there’s nothing to worry about because it was so minor that the blood will absorb back into the brain. There is also more improvement with her pain stimulation but she is still not responding to verbal cues like thumbs up or open your eyes.
January 29th they removed her from her ventilator and replaced it with a trach so that she will be able to breath on her own. The trach prevents her from getting bacterial infections and allows her lungs to heal and work for themselves. As well they did surgery to put pins in her collarbone. Both went well.
