Tyler’s Story

Site created on September 16, 2018

Welcome to Tyler's CaringBridge website. We wanted to use this in order to keep everyone updated on Tyler's condition. Tyler just turned 20 years old on September 12th, which also happened to be the day that tragedy struck for our family. On the morning of Tyler's birthday, he woke up pretty early and was up and doing normal morning activities. He texted his family and multiple friends, thanking them for the birthday wishes he was receiving. He decided to go back to bed for a while before it was time to go to lunch with mom. The last anyone heard from him was around 9:45 a.m. It wasn't abnormal for Tyler to sleep all day, he would do it all the time. When it became time for him to go to lunch with mom, she noticed that he was not answering his texts. She knew that he was going back to bed so she figured he was really tired and wanted to let him sleep. It wasn't until around 4:30 p.m. that we realized there was something wrong. We were supposed to go to dinner as a family so we went into his room to wake him up. When we went in there we realized that he was barely breathing, totally unresponsive, and there was blood coming from his mouth. We immediately called 911 and he was rushed to the emergency room. He was in the ER for about 3 hours and it was very scary. When we got to the emergency room his blood pressure was 57/30 which is extremely low. He was breathing very shallow, and still unresponsive. While he was in the ER, they put him on a ventilator and gave him loads of medicine to try to bring his blood pressure up. When he was stable enough to be transported they moved him into the ICU. It took a while for the nurses and doctors to get him to the point where he was considered "stable" but he was still unresponsive. While in the ICU, it was determined that he had a heart attack which then lead to a stroke. He stroked in the cerebellum of his brain so on September 13th, he had a craniotomy.  The purpose of the surgery was to decrease the swelling in his brain and drain the fluid in his brain.  After the surgery, he was transported back into the ICU and they performed many tests on him, one being an MRI.  The scan showed that he had brain damage to his cerebellum, basil ganglia, and hippocampus. He had more neurology tests but he was showing no response. The doctors told us that he is in a coma. The nurses performed neurology tests every 2 hours and he was still showing no response. Although it was easy for us to lose hope, his neurosurgeon reminded us that it was going to take time, and his brain needs the time to heal. On September 15th, he showed a response to the neurology test, something he has not done before. A nurse pushed down hard on his fingernails and he pulled his leg back, he responded to a sternum rub and finally had a gag response. On the morning of September 16th, he had another neurology test and showed more  significant responses to pain.  He actually moved his arms at the surgeon when he was pinching him.  He also turned his head away from a light being shined in his eyes.  His EKG also previously shows that his heart was only functioning at 20%, but today, 2 echocardiograms showed his heart is normal. We want to use this site to help provide updates on his condition and also to ask everyone for their continued prayers for Tyler. We don’t know where this is going but we know we have to wait and see, and pray!

Newest Update

Journal entry by Katelyn Adams

Tyler’s Memorial Service will be next Friday, October 19 @ 4:00 with reception to follow at Cross of Christ Church 12099 Lowell Blvd Broomfield 
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