Dad's story

Each day my mom will be keeping journal so I will post as I can.

This first post is kind dis-jointed because I was just writing down as she talked to other people about what happened.

My aunt Rhonda has taken pictures last night and I will take a few today and if anyone wants them I will email them to you-they are kind of hard to look at since he is so banged up- so I won't post them on my front blog page.

This is from my moms point of view


Doran’s Accident

6/15/09

I slept in till about 7:15. The first time the paramedics called was 7:01 and the hospital called me at 7:33.
I think left Doran left the house around 6:30 or so. I don’t know I was asleep. My understanding is he was headed west on c470 bike trail. He was on c 470 and came to Santa Fe. It knocked him up on the curb. When he got to Santa Fe, he was hit by a GMC truck, going about 45 miles an hour. The driver of the truck got out and called 911. No one saw the accident, but him, and he stayed with Doran until the ambulance got there. He was coherent at that time, we think a couple of cars were stopped for a left hand turn, and he didn’t see the other car, or thought that it was also stopped to turn left.
They rushed him to Littleton Hospital and had an emergency response team waiting for him. On route, he was able to give them my cell phone number and name. The Chaplin tried calling me, but I had left the phone in the bedroom and did not hear it ring. When I went back to the room I heard it beeping.
When I called back-the Chaplin told me Doran had been in a serious accident, and I asked him a number of times if he was going to live, but the Chaplin would not tell me. I got a water bottle, got dressed, and went to the hospital. She told me he didn’t die, but I needed to come down as soon as possible. She met me at the door and walked me through all of this, and the Chaplin followed me around for a few hours.
She was Jewish. She was able to go in and see the doctors to find out what is happen because mom wasn’t allowed in.
The cops told me that it was this guys word against Doran’s, so no tickets were issued, but insurance companies are going to get into the mix, and so questions will have to be answered.
Two policemen came in and wanted me to sign papers, but I didn’t want to sign it yet. The cop said that if it was his wife he would sign it. It released medical records to insurance companies. The cop said the guy driving might have been lying, he said the light was green, but maybe it was red.
The doctor stopped counting the stitches across this forehead, because it was too many.

He had a small bruise on his Kidney, but it was gone before the end of the day.
His right lung was filling with blood, but they were able to get that stabilized.
The cardiologist that worked on him was the best, the nurse said that he is who she goes to.

Four things to take care of in emergency
Bleeding
Breathing
HE had the first 2 wrong.
He had a whole team of trauma doctors working on him when I first saw him and my heart was pounding so hard. They said they could get the bleeding stopped and save him. It was like a movie when people are running around trying to save someone. He could be in a coma for several days, but won’t give a definite time.
The doctor in the ER was more weary instead of sad. He has worked on a man earlier that had been in a bike accident, who was not wearing a helmet, who didn’t make it.
They kept me informed and they let me know what was going on all the time.
The doctor came out and said he had been there for 11 years and said if the spleen isn’t going to heal he would take it out. And then he came out and said the spleen was stitched up and the bleeding has stopped, which has stabilized his blood pressure, and the spleen would be just fine.
The Chaplin said the cardiologist is already here, he doesn’t have to be called in, and he is in the next room. His heart was bruised and the big aorta was bruised, they were worried about blood clots because of that. They added a mess-like Stint to catch any blood clots. The cardiologist said “Mrs. Whitaker, the heart is fine, there are no problems there, in fact he looks so good we are moving his to orthopedic right away.” The doctor taking Doran up, said he rides his bike there all the time and people come in here all the time from there. He told the cop to put a sign up to warn bikers of this corner.
Rhonda came and sat with me. She was very helpful, since she has been on both sides of the bed. She was able to explain everything to me in terms I could understand.
Doran was placed into a sedated coma, and his other non-critical injuries will be asset later. He had bleeding of the frontal lobes of the brain, which is common in trauma injuries. He also broke his right leg, the lower bones-fibula and tibia-which they set and have pinned in place. It was a closed Compound fracture—it poked out and then came back in-so they had to clean it really well. The femur is fine.
His upper arm was broken in two places in the bottom, the top part was broken, but they want to wait till he is more stable before dealing with that.
His heart rate is very low—about 43 to 46—resting and that has caused concern, but once we explained he was a great athlete the nurses stopped worrying about it.

Other random bits I haven’t been able to place in the story…
=His head has a big gash and torn all the stitches that he had before.
=His eye looked like a big purple eye. They gave him 4 pints of bloods—they image him with a cat scan every 4 hours to check the blood on the brain.
=He has many abrasions on his face and nose and with the fluids he is pretty swollen, but has great color.
=Jack Zufelt and Jack Marble gave blessings,
=Jack blessed that Doran would be OK—not any specific timeline, but he will be OK.
=My heart is pounding and I am having arrhythmia because of the stress.
=They put him on a ventilator. His brain injury will dissipate in time. Even when you are hit the brain sloshes around in his head and causes the broken capillaries.
=He doesn’t have permanent spine injuries, and he will walk again. Maybe 2 months on his arms and 4 months on his leg.
=He is going to have some long roads ahead of him, several surgeries on his leg, and a few on his arm.
=Stay positive that would be important for him, and that he was enjoying the thing he loves to do.
=I miss him and am so lonely. I kept thinking I want to tell Doran this and that
=Diane Nolen came in and I told her this must how everyday is for you.