Pap-Paw

Most of you probably know that Alan's dad is in the hospital. He took a bad fall from the stairs onto the hard linoleum (we think he may have blacked out, causing his fall, but not sure). He is suffering from severe head trauma and is not responding as we would like at this time. He has an injury to his right hand and hip (a prior hip replacement likely prevented a broken bone) but they are minor.

There is no reason to believe that he won't recover from his injury, but we are told it is very unlikely that he will recover to his full abilities. His left side seems to be weaker and will probably remain that way. The scans show no further bleeding or swelling, so that is a good sign. He has yet to reopen his eyes since late Saturday afternoon and we are anxious for that to happen. He is kept mildly sedated but periodically taken off the drip to test for any response.

He miraculously survived the fall and had the presence of mind and ability to make it up the stairs and eventually into his bedroom. He had lost a lot of blood and had an alarmingly significant "goose egg" on the back of his head. He was not able to speak very clearly but seemed strongly aware. I can't help but think he walked back up those stairs for a reason.

We have a lot of hope for his recovery, but are hit quite often with the reality of his age. As healthy as he was, he just may not be able to recover from such an extreme shock to his system. Within a few hours of his arrival at Floyd Memorial, we were told (mistakenly) that he had suffered a heart attack; he had stopped breathing, but was resuscitated and intubated. He was transported to Jewish Hospital for possible surgery, but after an angiogram showed there was no aneurysm and no further bleeding, that was thankfully ruled out. Another very grim time waiting for those results... We saw him regress to his current state (which we were told was normal after a severe head trauma)and hopefully await for his body to heal.

Please keep him in your prayers!