|
I've been following the updates and checking on his progress. I wanted to share something that I hope may shed light on the questions you have about his comatose state.
I've had two serious injuries in my motorcycling career. One in 2005 that I spent a year that nearly killed me and that I spent a year and a half recovering from. The other was in 2010 and involved the broadsiding of a mountain at about 85mph.
Both situations caused serious concussions. The 2005 incident had me in and out of consciousness for 3 days in the ICU. The second incident was a completely different experience and was unique in regard to any other incident I've had playing sports or crashing.
2005: The force of the impact was enough to crack my helmet down a large portion of the right side and the force of the bounce shoved my helmet to the left side of my body and shattered my collarbone and paralyzed my left shoulder. The head injury was not severe enough to require a surgery to relieve pressure, but I only remember pictures or moments of time from this accident after it happened. I was told later that I was answering questions and occasionally making eye contact, but I know that I only recorded brief moments from the first few days. I was still myself when I would briefly come to, but I was only responding on a subconscious level. I was not really cognitive of where I was or what had happened. I would wake, feel severe pain then trail off and fall asleep again. This lasted for days until they started to dial back the meds heavily and I once again made it back to a state of mind that allowed me to asses my injuries and realize how bad everything was and that I was in a hospital somewhere.
2010: This accident didn't break bones but the force at which I hit was dispersed over the whole of my body. I went into a weird 20 second memory loop. My friends were helping me with the accident and so they took my phone and my wallet off me. Well every 20 seconds or so I would have to ask, "Where is my phone?" "Where is my wallet?" "Where the **** are we?" "Where's Kit?" It was pretty bad. I couldn't remember my DOB, my mother's name, I couldn't remember much of anything for a few hours. X-Rays showed no internal bleeding and I was given a clean bill of health that evening. They simply requested that I "take it easy."
I'm telling you this not for a pissing contest but to show you that the brain is a weird organ. Without even needing to go in surgically to reduce swelling you can create all kinds of wild conditions. The responses a person gives you when they're injured may seem normal, but you're probably only communicating with a portion of Kevin at the present time. He's responding already, which is great. That's a great sign. I am merely suggesting that you not get frustrated with how the doctors rate his condition at present. I'm sure they're seeing something that's been observed before and they want to keep him on the "Comatose" list until they get more signs of his recovery.
Hang in there. It sounds like he will come back.
|