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Brandon's January Updates

Brandon Stone Gets in a car wreck and becomes a handicapped paraplegic1/12/05

On a night in January, Brandon was sitting peacefully at a stoplight in Philadelphia. The time was between 11:00 pm and 12:00 am. He has just finished closing the ice cream store where he is manager. Brandon was on his way to his place where his roommate's mom had made dinner. Suddenly, a white Jeep Cherokee slams in to the back of his 91 Toyota Corolla. The Jeep ended up in the backseat of the Corolla.
Brandon's car after he was rear-ended.


The force of the impact ripped Brandon's diaphragm and shoved some of his organs into this chest cavity. It took the paramedics nearly an hour and a half to extract Brandon from the wreckage. He was rushed to Albert Einstein Medical Center in Pennsylvania. Brandon arrived conscious at the hospital and joked the best he could with his roommate's mother. He was taken into surgery where the doctors worked on repairing a tear in his aorta. He also had liver, spleen and kidney damage. Unfortunately, those where not the extent of his wounds. Brandon crushed several of his lumbar vertebrae. The orthopedic surgeon has not been able to operate on him yet due to his other injuries. The doctor did, however, say that there is a 95% chance that Brandon will never walk again. His other injuries are being worked on now. His kidneys are not functioning properly because of the impact, as well as, being severely overworked. Brandon is going through dialysis in order to relieve his kidneys. Also, the doctors are concerned with his lungs. They collapsed in the wreck but were not punctured. The doctors have not been able to fully inflate Brandon's lung as of yet. The doctors are also worried about pneumonia. The orthopedic surgeon wants to operate on Brandon's back this Thursday, January 20th. This is about a week sooner than expected. We can only hope that is good news. Keep Brandon and his family in your prayers.


This is all the news I have as of yet. I will post more on Brandon's condition as I get it. If you want to get in touch with me please e-mail me at the address below. Linked to this page is a that site shows some pictures of the wreck. The pictures aren't very good, but you should get the point.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/traffic/01122005_traf_cheltenham_ax.html

1/19/05

The latest news is the Brandon may not need dialysis for his kidneys. The doctors plan on going into surgery on Thursday morning, Jan. 20, 2005. They will fuse his lumbar vertebrae together by putting a rod in his back. This will not affect whether he will walk or not. The surgery will allow the doctors to move Brandon, and will allow Brandon to sit up in bed. The doctors also believe that by sitting up, his lungs should clear. They have reduced his amount of oxygen intake from 60% to 40%. This is good news. Also, Brandon will be fed into his stomach. While the overall picture is still teetering on the edge, there are still some small victories.

Last I heard, the guy that hit Brandon is still in jail. He is facing a variety of charges including vehicular assalt, driving on a suspended liscense, and possible DUI. The tox screens have not come back yet determining if the guy was driving under the influence. Once again, please feel free to email me if you want more information.

For those of you who don't know me, I am Brandon's older brother, Mike.
I have set up an e-mail account for Brandon. Please let him know you are thinking of him. The address is Email:brandon_stone2005@yahoo.com

01/20/05

Great News!!! Brandon flexed his knees! As of now, he is at a 2 of 5. Normal movement (walking on his own without aid) is a 5 of 5. The doctors think that his movement should increase as the toxin levels go down. The kidney doctor believes that Brandon's kidneys should come back to full function. He is putting Brandon on dialysis for 3 hours today. Brandon's lungs are fully inflated, but they had to increase the pressure of his oxygen. The orthopedic doctor wants to delay the back surgery until next Thursday because of the toxins in Brandon's blood. He also only does surgery on Mondays and Thursdays. Keep praying for Brandon. It is working!

01/21/05

There is not a lot of new news so far today. The doctors are trying to take the breathing tube out and wean him off his oxygen. One doctor said he may be able to eat some birthday cake on Sunday, his 24th birthday. They took Brandon off of dialysis today and will resume tomarrow. His kidney levels are getting better. His back surgery is still scheduled for next Thursday. Brandon's white cell count is still elevated, but the doctors have not started him on antibiotics yet, since they still have six days to get rid of the infection. Brandon hovers between consiousness and unconciousness. He is on morphine and Midazolan(an amnesiac). The doctors are trying to decrease his painkillers, but need him to remain immobile until the back surgery. When he is awake, he is alert and tries to communicate. He can't hold a pen beacuse his hands are swollen from fluid retention. Brandon has to lay flat on his back with his legs elevated and slightly apart and his arms at his side at about a 30 degree angle. Needless to say, this is uncomfortable to him. I plan to put a link to a photo gallery of Brandon in the hospital and the people who visit him as soon as I can. I am still new to making webpages, so be patient. Keep praying.

01/23/05

Not much has changed. The doctors are trying to take him off the ventilator. They have his oxygen level at the lowest setting. They are hopeful that Monday he will be off of it. Brandon had dialysis done today, but the doctors have yet to decide about tomarrow. His blood work is improving. Brandon still has a fever and infection, but they are slowly going away. Brandon's biggest frustration is that he has to lay immobile on his back. He is in a lot of pain from his back despite the doctors efforts. When Brandon is awake, he looks around the room for people he recognizes. His recovery is going to be a long, slow process. He is, however, getting better everyday. I'll try to get more tomorrow.

01/24/05
The following update comes from Keith Stone.

I thought that I would try to give a general update on Brandon's condition. I spoke with Brandon's nurse this morning and he said that Brandon had a "pretty uneventful" night. He has done well on the reduced ventilator settings. His "levels" (indicators on how well his kidneys, lungs and liver are functioning) are getting better. His fever is down a bit but his white blood count is still elevated. He has a lot of pain from his back as a result of trying to lower his morphine levels to remove him from the ventilator. Brandon has been on his back without being able to move from that position for 12 days now. He will have to remain that way until they can do his back surgery. For today, the doctors will make another evaluation about surgery this afternoon, but it will probably be Thursday. They are reluctant to do surgery while he has an infection. They will continue to try to reduce his ventilator settings so that they can pull the vent tube. Right now they can go one level lower before taking him off of it. Brandon is ready for them to pull it, so that he can communicate, besides the thing hurts! They will probably do dialysis again to day while they wait for full renal functioning. There are good signs that his kidneys may be returning to normal soon. Prayer needs for today: that Brandon's fever (minimal right now) will continue to go down to normal, for his kidneys to continue improving, for Brandon to tolerate the lower ventilator settings so that they can take him off of it completely and remove the breathing tube, and for the pain in his back.

I talked to my Dad this morning and he said that they took the breathing tube out. Brandon can't talk yet because of a sore throat. The doctors have taken him off the Midazolan, but Brandon is still on Morphine. I am still trying to get a separate photo gallery up and running. It may take some time.

01/25/04
Another update from Keith Stone.

A lot has happened since yesterday morning after the 7:00 a.m. update from the night nurse. Brandon's fever has gone up from about 100 to 104. The infectious disease specialist has been unable to determine why, as they have not found any infection. Brandon's renal output is good but the numbers that they check to see if the kidney is functioning have not changed so they will probably resume dialysis today. They still believe that the kidneys willl return to full function soon. The big news yesterday was that when we arrived at 9:30 AM they had removed the breathing tube. Brandon was more active, and tried hard to communicate with us. But his throat was so sore and hoarse that it was still hard to understand him. About 6 PM they had to put the tube back in because he was not moving enough air in his lungs and his blood gas numbers were not good enough. This will probably mean that they will do a tracheotomy when they do surgery. The doctors are not concerned about this, as it is easier to wean someone off of a trach tube than the breathing tube down his throat. The good thing is that they can increase his pain medicine when he is on the vent. Brandon is still scheduled for surgery on Thursday, probably about 3 PM. The infectious disease doctor said that on his part he could not see anything to keep the orthopedic surgeon from doing the surgery. Christina (Brandon's sister) is planning to fly out Thursday. We are apprehensive about her flying alone, but she is sure that she can do it. We ask your prayer for her.
Prayer needs for today:


Thank you for your prayers. Keith and Sandy

I apologize for having someone else write these last two updates. My Dad knows more than I do about the situation.

01/26/05
From Keith Stone

Tuesday was a pretty eventful day. Brandon's fever was up to 104.5 Tuesday morning and they still had not found a reason for the fever. They decided to do a CT Scan to see if they could find a cause. They also decided to do dialysis after the CT Scan. The scan was scheduled for 1 PM. At 2:30 they finally came to get Brandon, his special bed and all of the connections that he is connected to. 2 hours later they returned to the room. The scanned his belly, his back and his head. The scans gave them lots of information: - Brandon has fluids on both lungs. They drained one of them Tuesday and will drain the other today. He was breathing easier after the first procedure. - Brandon has sinusitis, something that he has had off and on for several years. It is usually accompanied by fever and a sore throat. -Brandon has a slight leakage of the fluid around his brain. There is no swelling (excellent news) and the Chief Resident did not feel like this was a problem. But just to be on the safe side a Neurological Surgeon was called in for consult. He agreed that they will leave it right now and believe that everything will return to normal soon. They will CT scan again in a couple of days. -The scan on Brandon's spinal cord looked good. They did not see any problems with the part of the spine where the spinal cord lays. Also, from the CT scan the spinal cord did not show any signs of infiltration from broken bone and that was good. I spoke to Brandon's nurse this morning. He said that Brandon's fever was down a little bit this morning. Prayer needs for today: Keep praying for Brandon's tempature to return to normal
You all have been wonderful! We hope you know how much we appreciate your prayers, calls, and cards. They are a continuing source of strength and blessings.
Keith and Sandy

Update #2 01/26/05

Brandon’s surgery has been postponed until Monday at 3 PM. While that is a disappointment, we understand their caution. They orthopedic doctor wanted to wait until after the CT Scan of his head before they put him under general anesthesia. Also, his hemoglobin count is down around 7 and they would like it to be around 12 before they do surgery. The hemoglobin helps with clotting. They have given him two units of blood during dialysis. They will give him more on Sunday, and during surgery as well. A bit of good news, as they were preparing for dialysis the nurse pulled the tape off of his groin area and he reacted, which means that despite the pain medicine he felt it. The more sensation that he has below the waist the better. Brandon’s fever is down a little bit more this morning. The doctor feels that it will go down even more once they get the fluid off of his other lung. Thank you for lifting Brandon up in prayer.
Keith

01/27/05
From Sandy Stone

What seemed like another setback is actually a blessing. Brandon’s back surgery has been delayed again. It is rescheduled for Monday afternoon. The blessing is that these doctors are on top of everything and are taking every precaution to insure Brandon’s recovery. (It seems as if Brandon has a specialist for every part of his body.) They aspirated almost 2 liters of fluid from Brandon’s lungs which improved his blood oxygen levels, blood gases and overall breathing. They will aspirate “stuff” from his sinuses where they believe the infection causing his fever may be found. They continue to dialyze him as his kidneys are not quite healthy enough to work on their own. Blood transfusions also continue to build his hemoglobin for surgery. They also did a sonogram of his legs to check for blood clots. The good news was that the tests were negative.
Brandon is being kept heavily sedated. That is, he sleeps for the most part but will open his eyes when called or shook. The plans now are to continue the blood transfusions, dialysis, and antibiotics. They will also take another CT scan to be sure the tear and leakage of fluid into his brain has not changed. This is just a precaution before they put him on general anesthesia (and another prayer concern.)
Keith and I have settled into a routine spending the major part of our day at the hospital. Once we return to the room in the evenings, we check e-mail and return phone calls. The e-mails and calls are so important to us. We have been encouraged by your love and concern and by the stories of victory. Many have had experience with these things and have given us invaluable information and guidance regarding Brandon’s future. We thank you for each e-mail, card and call.
Christina arrives today for a few days. Special thanks to Sheila Johnson for her role in making this happen. We are so excited to see her!
Love,
Keith and Sandy

I am putting a photo gallery up here. I don't know if it will work. As of now, it only has a couple of pictures of Brandon on the beach.

Brandon's Photo Gallery

01/28/05
From Keith Stone

We want to thank you for your faithfulness in praying for Brandon and for your e-mails of encouragement and support. We serve a great God who has used you to minister to us. While we would like to see giant strides every day, we trust the Lord and thank Him for the small victories. Brandon still has a fever, though it is down from 104.5. It has stayed the last 48 hours below 103, this morning down to 102.4. He has rested comfortably despite a rash that itches. His white blood count was down (good) and his hemoglobin level was up to 9. They would like it to be 12 for surgery (helps in clotting.) They will probably continue to give him transfusions to raise the hemoglobin level. The results of the CT Scan of his head were good. Actually the doctor said that there was “no change” which means that the fluid is not building. They are still planning for his back surgery on Monday, about 3 PM EST. The doctors suspended his dialysis for yesterday, but will probably dialyze him today. His blood chemistry levels are slowly getting better each day, and the doctors still believe that his kidneys will return to full function. They said that they suffered such a tremendous shock that it will just take some time. Brandon has had wonderful care from the doctors and the nursing staff. We could not ask for better. As you lift Brandon up today, thank the Lord with us for the staff of Albert Einstein Medical Center. We thank the Lord that Christina arrived yesterday afternoon. We have missed her tremendously and will enjoy the time here with her. She will be flying home Sunday morning.
Prayer requests for today:
Sometimes when he is awake he tries to move, raise his head and arch his back. Until his back is repaired they would like him to remain as still as possible. He has done remarkably well since he has had to remain flat on his back for 17 days now, except for the brief time that they turned him during his CT Scan on his back. We praise the Lord today as Sandy and I celebrate 27 years of marriage. Thank you for your prayers.
Keith and Sandy

01/29/05
From Keith Stone

Brandon’s fever has gone down some. (PTL) It was 100 yesterday afternoon, but went back over 101 in the evening and was the same this morning. The infectious disease specialist said that it was either a reaction to the medication or from the sinusitis. Either way, unless they find something “growing” in the culture from aspirating his sinus cavity they will proceed with the surgery as scheduled on Monday. They dialyzed Brandon again yesterday afternoon, but the doctors still have hopes that his kidneys will return to 100% after time to heal. Dr. Ali, one of the Kidney Residents has been very encouraging. He said that he has seen kidneys recover after six weeks of dialysis. They did a test on some of the muscles below Brandon’s waist and found that he has muscle tone, which is good. He also was pushing with his legs against the brace at the bottom of his bed. While this does not mean that Brandon will walk (we are still praying for that miracle) Brandon does have much more muscle control below his waist than the doctors expected. They are still keeping Brandon sedated until they can do his back surgery. He will respond when they try to wake him up, but right now he sleeps most of the time. This is really better, as he gets agitated and frustrated when he is awake. He has asked numerous times to be able to get off of his back. After the back surgery they can begin the process of getting him off of the ventilator and begin therapy on his arms and legs. He will be able to sit up in the bed and lay on something besides his back.
Prayer concerns for today:
Christina will be traveling back to OK tomorrow morning. We are expecting about an inch of snow in the morning. Pray for her safety as she travels. To Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond what we ask or think we give all the praise and glory.
Keith and Sandy

01/30/05
From Keith Stone

Brandon had a pretty good day yesterday. He was relaxed most of the day, and even awake for about 5 minutes for his little sister to visit with him before we left the hospital last night. His surgery is still scheduled for Monday even though he has a low grade fever. They have decided that the fever was an allergic reaction to the blood pressure medicine that he had to take after his heart surgery. Yesterday the neurological surgeon told Sandy that Brandon has two small areas of fluid, bilateral, on his brain. They are going to keep an eye on it, but don’t believe that they will cause him any trouble. But just to be safe, they have scheduled an MRI. As long as they don’t grow in size, or if they don’t have blood in them they will leave them alone. Otherwise, they would have to drain them. They don’t want to do that unless it is necessary since any time the head is opened up, it gives opportunity for infection. Christina is flying out this morning. There has been a light snow this morning, so we are leaving early to catch her flight. Pray for her as she travels.
Praises so far:
Prayer Needs Today:
Thank you for your continued prayer and concern. The e-mails are such a blessing! Have a wonderful Lord’s Day!
Keith and Sandy

01/31/05
From Keith Stone

Today is the big day. Back surgery is still scheduled for 3 PM EST. We ask your prayers for the success of this surgery, for Dr. Williams, the orthopedic surgeon, and all of his team. The surgery should last between 4 and 6 hours. Brandon will be so glad to get his back fixed. Then he will be able to sit up and lay on something besides his back. He has been in the same position since the morning of Jan 13. Soon they also hope to get the vent tube out of his throat. They are going to hold off until the end of the week to see if it is necessary to do a tracheotomy. They would rather see if they can wean him off of the machine rather than doing this procedure. GOOD NEWS! Brandon’s fever broke during the night and at least this morning he has no fever. This has happened before only to spike again. Also Brandon’s creatin levels are down to 2 which is an indication that his kidneys may be kicking in. They removed his catheter for dialysis Sunday morning. Later, after his back surgery they can reinsert it if necessary, but for now it is gone. Also, they have cancelled the MRI and instead will do a CT Scan of his brain on Tuesday. Brandon still has a rash that is quite itchy. His nurse this morning said that it was better than yesterday. Yesterday he actually looked like he had been at the beach all day and gotten a good sunburn. Thank you for continuing to pray for Brandon and for sharing his requests with others. We have heard from people around the world that are praying for Brandon’s recovery. Every day he makes small progress and the doctors are pleased. We attribute it all to a God that is still in the miracle business. We are praying for a full recovery, and that the Lord will be glorified in this life that was spared. Also, thank you for praying for Christina’s trip. She arrived in Tulsa a little later than expected, but did make it home. Secure in His grip,
Keith and Sandy



Brandon's Updates

Email: thebeachcowboy@gmail.com