Brian’s Car Wreck

On Wednesday May 27th, Brian totaled his ‘87 Volkswagen Golf (lovingly named Chips) in an accident on Bangerter Hwy between Redwood Rd and I-15.  He drifted onto the shoulder, over corrected, spun out and slammed into the center barrier.  Luckily no one else was involved, but unfortunately Brian was hurt pretty badly.  He tore up his left shoulder pretty good.  He has had problems with this shoulder for years and this was the final straw.  He dislocated it in the accident and was taken to Jordan Valley Medical Center.  This all happened around 7:30am.  I got a call from my mom around 10:30 asking why I wasn’t answering any of Brian’s calls – and she sounded pretty panicked.  Apparently I had let my cell phone die and my home phone wasn’t working very well.  Either way – I hadn’t received any phone calls from Brian or the EMT’s letting me know that he had even been in an accident!  I immediately called the hospital and figured out what was going on.  I found a babysitter for the girls and headed to the hospital.  I figured I would get there just in time to take Brian home.  Wrong!  We ended up staying there until 4:30 that afternoon!  They could not get Brian’s shoulder to stay in socket.  It dislocated itself another 6 times after they put it back in place – the same thing over and over.  It looked VERY painful!  They had referred us to an orthopedic surgeon, so I had my mom call (since we were still in the ER) and tell them what was going on and find out how soon they could see us, since i usually takes a long time to get in to see a specialist.  They seemed so worried about Brian, that they told us to come over right away and they would see us immediately.  We were able to get in, and for a while, not even the orthopedist could get Brian’s shoulder in place.  After about 35 minutes of tugging, pulling, pushing, and Brian trying not to scream (but there was yelling involved) his shoulder was finally put back in place.  We were then told that Brian would be having surgery as soon as possible.  That we just needed to wait for the swelling to go down, and the blood to dissolve.  Brian went in for shoulder surgery (a Bankart Repair) on Tuesday June 2nd.  While we were at the hospital and Brian was in surgery, the power went out 4 times!  The Dr.. said later that every time the power went out, his cameras reset and the had to wait a few minutes for them to come back on so they could continue with the procedure!  While they were repairing his shoulder, they also found out that Brian had a torn rotator cuff!  So they fixed that as well.  He gets to have a ‘lovely’ sling for 6 weeks and then at least a month of therapy.  The Dr. thinks he will be ‘back to normal’ by Christmas!

Here are a few ‘fun’ pics:

Brian in bed right after the accident – the worst casualty of the accident was his favorite shirt!, Hannah in bed while daddy was getting x rays – isn’t she cute!

Brian and Chips for the last time :(