Renee Whitehouse Renee Whitehouse

Welcome to our 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.

For those of you who may not be up to date on Renee's story, she was in a Lime scooter (motorized scooter) accident on the morning of Jan 17 (Jan 18 New Zealand time). She was very fortunate not to have damage to her body (arms, legs, ribs, etc.), but was not so lucky with her skull. She has been on a respirator in Dunedin Hospital's ICU since being admitted. Courtney and I were fortunate enough to be able to fly out to New Zealand on the 18th, though because of the day time difference, we did not arrive until Sunday, Jan 20.

She has been extubated a few times to see if she would be able to breathe on her own. The first time, Jan 21, she was able to talk and expressed concern about finishing up her Master's thesis. She was not able to keep up breathing on her own though for a prolonged period, so she was re-intubated.  They extubated her again on Jan 23, but she was very agitated and kept trying to get out of bed. Again, she was having difficulty breathing on her own for a prolonged period, so was intubated again.

Courtney and I flew back to the states on Friday and I've been in touch with the ICU each day since (as well as with one of Renee's good friends who has been visiting her regularly). The plan now is to slowly wean Renee off breathing assistance so they don't have to replace the tube again. It may take a day or so, but better slow and safe.

Renee had been found to have pneumonia mid last week, but it has been responding to antibiotics.