Welcome!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
Tired but happy that Hurricane Matthew didn’t make it to our area after all, we began our Saturday morning like any other weekend day. Had a quick breakfast and a cup of joe and off we went to do our usual errands of the week. Some together, some apart, but at last we sat as a family to eat a few delicious empanadas for lunch. Hubby was busy doing things around the house. Our son J and I went to visit my in-laws across the street. After chatting for half an hour I felt like going home while our son stayed behind, only to find my dear husband unconscious on the kitchen floor. Flat on his back, I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing. I tried to put him on his side, but he kept rolling back. Desperate, I ran across the street to get my son, I needed help. Together we put him on his side as he began to snore (or at least it sounded like snoring) and then I called 911. My husband’s family lives all around us, so soon enough everyone was at our house. It took about 15 minutes for rescue to arrived, but it seemed like an eternity.
Scared to death I rode in the Fire Rescue vehicle straight to the ER not knowing what had happened to G or if he would even survive. He was only 50 years old at the time; strong, happy and at the prime of his life. Our son was 18 and hubby and I were beginning to enjoy life as a couple again. At the ER they asked me about the medicines he took and to give permission to intubate him. After a million questions and waiting for his CT Scans to be done, they brought G back into the ER while I stood in a corner as personnel said that it had been a traumatic injury, not knowing that I was there. A technician that came out of the CT Scan room told us that it was in the hands of God now.
Soon after a neurosurgeon and a neurologist came to perform the Glasgow coma assessment. I found out months later that his score was 4 in a scale of 15. He woke up and moved his legs and arms but never opened his eyes. I was told he had a fractured skull with a subdural hematoma and that they couldn’t do anything for him except for admitting him to the Neuro ICU. We tried to determine what had happened to him, but all I knew was that he wasn’t feeling well from a cold and was taking cough medicine. The past week had been stressful because of the preparations for Hurricane Matthew, both at home and at his job. He almost passed out while we were putting our shutters up, but that time I was there with him to give him water and make sure he was alright. This time I was across the street not knowing what was going on, totally clueless.
The following six weeks comprise the worst days of my life, aside from the days that my sister and parents had passed away. I would go to work at the wee hours of the morning for just a couple of hours and then to the hospital for twelve hours every day. I said to myself that I would take it one day at a time. And so I did. My husband’s injuries included a fractured skull, subdural hematoma, brain swelling, aspiration pneumonia, ARDS, high blood pressure, fever and later on we found out that pneumonia had caused his body to collapse after dehydrating himself working in the Miami heat. This could have been PREVENTED!!! My hubby did not know when to stop and his body stopped for him.
On week four G opened his eyes every time that the nurses moved him and caused discomfort and then he started opening them when he would hear our voices. On week six I was told that he couldn’t stay in that hospital indefinitely and that we needed to move him to a long term facility. After visiting the only two facilities in Miami, I chose one in Coral Gables. I was terrified, he no longer was connected to all those wonderful machines that kept him safe. We had to get used to the new situation and that included traveling further away from home. By now I had switched all of my software to their online versions so I could work from the hospital. In retrospect, I don’t know how I managed to keep my job, but I’m glad that I did. In this hospital my husband got lots of visits from his coworkers, but almost none from his family. That made me feel lonely and sad for him. I was plenty busy watching him every minute, changing him, doing his physical therapy, and feeding him once he started eating again.
Weaning him from life support was no picnic. People that had been on a respirator for that long forget how to breath. I would panic and remind him to breath every time that I noticed a lapse. After three weeks at the long term facility he got transferred to a rehabilitation hospital for an additional four weeks. Once again we had to get used to another facility until we finally made it home in January of 2017. We first used a wheelchair, then a walker and finally just my hand. Months of physical, occupational and speech therapies followed. To everyone’s surprise, he walks, he talks, he eats, he breathes, and he has sensation on all parts of his body. Unfortunately, he has been diagnosed with cortical blindness and he suffers from short and long term memory loss. Obviously his cognitive skills had been diminished. The worst part about our situation is that G looks the same but his being has changed. He truly died on October 8th of 2016. My son and I are grateful and happy to have him, but we are still getting used to the new G.
Life After Traumatic Brain Injury 