Friday July 8, 2005

O.K. I have finally found some time to get everyone up to date and I think the best place to start is the beginning. Zack’s accident occurred at 3:50 am Friday 7-8-05. We got the phone call that every parent dreads at 5:00 AM from the Jefferson County police telling us that our son had been in an accident and was air lifted to University Hospital. When we arrived and got to see him he had been given drugs to paralyze him. As they would wear off every hour he would begin to shake. He was moving his arms and legs so we were hopeful early on that he would not be permanently paralyzed. When we met his doctor, Dwayne Densler, he informed us how severely Zack was injured. He had a blood clot on the right side of his brain and a severe bruise on the left side. He also had a laceration on the top of his head that had cut through his scull to the brain. This was full of glass and debris from the accident. His brain was swelling. They put a shunt in his head to drain excess fluid and monitor the pressure building up inside. We were told that his ICP (Inner Cranial Pressure) was at 28 and rising. They were treating him with drugs and had him on a respirator that was breathing for him but they couldn’t get his ICP to an acceptable reading under 20. When his ICP reached 36 Dr. Densler told us that we should prepare for surgery. Many family and friends waited with us including dozens of teenagers. We were amazed at how quickly Zack’s friends found out about his accident and rushed to the hospital. By 2:00 pm his ICP had reached 40 and the bruise on the left side had grown. Although we wanted to wait for a 2nd opinion, we were told surgery had to be performed immediately or he would die. They removed the right side of his scull to allow his brain to swell. At that time, they also removed the blood clot and discovered that he had glass on his brain from the laceration on the top of his head. Everyone prayed with us as we waited for the CAT Scan that would show whether the bruise had grown or begun to bleed. That could result in his left scull being removed, which Dr Densler did not want to do. They had removed the right scull even though the more severe injury was the bruise on the left. The left side of the brain controls speech and motor skills so they did not want to damage any brain cells on that side during surgery. By removing the right scull they would force the brain to swell on that side (which can be more easily retrained). Prayers from our church family at Southeast Christian Church and all those waiting held us up. Others were calling their churches and soon we had thousands of people praying for Zack. Finally, the CAT Scan revealed that his brain had shifted back to the center and there was no bleeding. We learned to live by his IPC readings hour by hour. We prayed that infection would not develope from the laceration and his brain would not continue to swell. We are grateful for all his friends, our friends and family and everyone that faithfully wait with us.