Hello Family & Friends. Welcome to Lee's CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
Monday, August 3rd around 12 noon, Lee fell off the top of a 20 ft ladder while trying to fix a gutter on his house. On the fall down, he hit his head on a 9 ft concrete fountain landing on the gravel beside it.
Brooke called 911 and she and neighbors tried to aide Lee, the ambulance rushed him to Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. We were updated 2 hours later that he was breathing but intubated and in an ICU holding area awaiting for his scans to be read.
A few hours later, we were told that he has been extremely combative in the ICU taking 6 nurses to hold him down 2-3 times in TRUE Lee Fashion! We also learned at that time that Lee has suffered a severe skull fracture and a small brain bleed with an air pocket above the right temporal lobe and that he is in very critical condition. His progress would be monitored hour by hour right and we now wait for a scan that will tell the doctor if he should perform surgery to relieve pressure on the brain.
Around 7 pm, we were told that Lee was too combative to do a CT scan, and they would try again tomorrow. The NeuroSurgeon said it was a good sign that Lee "showed so much purpose" with him fighting back and trying to grab his breathing tube and IVs to yank out. The Neurosurgeon came to talk to us. He said Lee was in critical condition but that he was strong. He explained that his skull was fractured from the right temporal lobe and was fractured all the way across to the other side also causing a major impact on the eardrum that may lead to hearing loss but that this injury was secondary. He was most concerned with Lee's pupil activity making sure that there was not a change that would show any hemorrhaging and that at this time, because of no change, he would not be doing surgery (good news) but would be monitoring this specifically the 1st 48-72 hours.
Tuesday, August 4th. Lee was moved to ICU and around 6 am and had another CT and neuro scan that showed no change. (Good news) The Neuro team would then start be weaning him off the sedation and oxygenizing him to prep for removing the tube and that he was responsive enough to give a thumbs up when asked to do so! PRAISE GOD! We are also updated that he has multiple facial fractures and there will be potential surgeries later for this. We wait now to hear how the removal of the breathing tube would go.
At 4:15, Brooke spoke with the nurse that let her know that the tube was out and that he was breathing on his own and that he was able to answer yes and no questions verbally! This is a specific answered prayer!
7:30pm. The neurosurgeon calls Brooke to update her that there has been no change and they are trying not to bother him to prevent irritating him. He also explained that there will be cognitive challenges. We are now 33 hours in and waiting for our next update.
Please pray for our Lee. Pray he surpasses expectations over these next few days and that the cognitive challenges his faces are minimal.
