From Gloria, my coworker and his mom:
On Friday, May 16th, Andrew was transferred from Select Hospital in south Orlando to a rehab facility in Ocoee FL (Ocoee Healthcare Center). The intent is to encourage and stimulate him to progress in his rehab with more focus on physical and occupational therapy. On Saturday and Sunday he appeared more alert than he has been since the accident. We are finally getting his days/nights established correctly, as he had been awake at night and sleeping during the day, making therapy very difficult in the daytime. He is demonstrating more intentional directed movements of his left hand and arm, such as rubbing his eyes and even pushing a flashlight button to on/off. On Sunday he was able to push the nurse assist button when he needed something! His trach tube may come out in another couple weeks – it has been downsized to the smallest size and he is breathing on his own. No speech yet, or even any attempts at speaking, but there is still healing occurring in his brain. His right side is still lagging significantly, but with therapy we are hopeful that stimulation can help in this regard. The drug-induced liver damage is finally beginning to show signs of diminishing. No more pneumonia – which is great to say after 3 bouts with that.
The next steps include: replacement of the skull section, learning to eat so that the feeding tube can be removed, speech therapy, sitting up in a wheelchair, and most important - reaching the cognitive functioning level that will enable him to progress to a neuro rehab facility. It is hard to say how long this will take. With traumatic brain injury, each patient is different and the brain can take a long time to recover depending upon where the damage is and how extensive it was. He has significantly improved beyond the neurosurgeon’s prognosis already, and for that we are very thankful.
Your thoughts and prayers have been and continue to be greatly appreciated. This is going to be a long process, but at least we can say that we have seen continued improvement in the two months since his accident. We are very hopeful that he will recover to a much larger degree. Thanks for your help in this.
On Friday, May 16th, Andrew was transferred from Select Hospital in south Orlando to a rehab facility in Ocoee FL (Ocoee Healthcare Center). The intent is to encourage and stimulate him to progress in his rehab with more focus on physical and occupational therapy. On Saturday and Sunday he appeared more alert than he has been since the accident. We are finally getting his days/nights established correctly, as he had been awake at night and sleeping during the day, making therapy very difficult in the daytime. He is demonstrating more intentional directed movements of his left hand and arm, such as rubbing his eyes and even pushing a flashlight button to on/off. On Sunday he was able to push the nurse assist button when he needed something! His trach tube may come out in another couple weeks – it has been downsized to the smallest size and he is breathing on his own. No speech yet, or even any attempts at speaking, but there is still healing occurring in his brain. His right side is still lagging significantly, but with therapy we are hopeful that stimulation can help in this regard. The drug-induced liver damage is finally beginning to show signs of diminishing. No more pneumonia – which is great to say after 3 bouts with that.
The next steps include: replacement of the skull section, learning to eat so that the feeding tube can be removed, speech therapy, sitting up in a wheelchair, and most important - reaching the cognitive functioning level that will enable him to progress to a neuro rehab facility. It is hard to say how long this will take. With traumatic brain injury, each patient is different and the brain can take a long time to recover depending upon where the damage is and how extensive it was. He has significantly improved beyond the neurosurgeon’s prognosis already, and for that we are very thankful.
Your thoughts and prayers have been and continue to be greatly appreciated. This is going to be a long process, but at least we can say that we have seen continued improvement in the two months since his accident. We are very hopeful that he will recover to a much larger degree. Thanks for your help in this.