Welcome to our CaringBridge website for Rudy Johnson. Rudy’s son Chris Johnson, daughter Taryn Mohler, and stepdaughter Brenda Harvieux are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support, positive energy + thoughts, and words of hope + encouragement. Please understand that we’re managing a lot of moving parts right now and may not be able to respond to texts and phone calls in detail. But we are committed to updating this site regularly with new information as we receive it. Thank you for your love and understanding.
On his way to work at Cub Foods in Maplewood on Tuesday, May 10th, Rudy was in a motorcycle accident at Highway 36 and 61 between 6 and 7 AM. We don’t have many details about the events leading up to the crash. State Troopers have checked footage collected by traffic cameras in the area, but it occurred in a blind spot. Based on the tire marks, State Troopers theorize that a vehicle merged without looking and either hit him or caused Rudy to swerve and lose control of the motorcycle. He then crashed into the cement median, where he struck his head. No witnesses who saw the events leading up to the crash have come forward, nor has the other driver.
Rudy sustained some scrapes and significant bruising on his body, but the most damage was done to his head. The accident caused a severe traumatic brain injury and skull fractures: an orbital socket fracture, a skull fracture, and brain swelling, bruising, and bleeding.
Rudy was in the SICU at Regions Hospital, which is renowned for their trauma care, for about 2 1/2 weeks before transferring to their Surgical and Trauma Center. He was there for almost 3 weeks, during which he experienced a spontaneous brain bleed on top of the original brain bleed from the accident. This was a scary time, and we weren't sure how or if he would bounce back from that. Thankfully he started showing great improvements a few days later. He was at Regions until June 15 when he transferred to Regency Hospital. He wasn't quite ready for Regions' acute rehab program at that point. After about 2 weeks at Regency, Rudy transferred back to Regions Hospital on July 1 to start their acute rehab program. Everyone on his care team is impressed with the trajectory of his recovery. He's been relearning how to talk, walk, and care for himself. He's experiencing weakness on the right side of his body due to the trauma mainly affecting the left frontal lobe of his brain. His right arm has gotten a lot stronger, but he's still facing challenges with a lot of weakness in his right leg. He's also experiencing some challenges with his short-term memory and aphasia, but he is getting better at forming sentences, finding the right words, and holding conversations every day.
Rudy’s path to recovery is going to be long, and we are so grateful for the outpouring of love and support. We understand that everyone would love to visit him in the hospital, but due to hospital restrictions and COVID, only 2 people are allowed each day. It’s difficult, but we need to restrict visitors to immediate family at this time. We will post on this CaringBridge site ways that people can support Rudy in the near future and reach out to you individually if there’s something specific with which we know you can help. Please do write messages to Rudy on this site—we will read them to him in the hospital as he recovers.
Thank you for loving and supporting Rudy and all of us during this difficult time. We are so grateful for each and every one of you.
Please consider supporting Rudy through GoFundMe - learn more on the Ways To Help page.
https://gofund.me/3cc6efchttps://gofund.me/3cc6efc4https://gofund.me/3cc6efc4 
