Kevin's Recovery Helping Kevin Mather on his road to recovery

Surgery Update

1:31 pm, July 4th: From Leanne Souisa’s phone conversation with Janice Gentry: Kevin is talking now after having the tube removed from his throat.  The spinal injury was a Stage 3.  He is still unable to feel his toes or move his legs.  Keep praying.

11:05 am, July 4th: From Rhonda Stout’s phone conversation with Janice Gentry: I just got off of the phone with Janice and she gave me the following update on Kevin’s progress to pass on to everyone.  I tried to write as much of the details down as I could, I will do my best to convey the information as accurately as I can remember.  Kevin was in surgery until 12:30 last night and was moved into the ICU around 2 am.  The neurosurgeon had just spoke with Tiff and the family right before Janice called me and said she was amazed with Kevin’s progress and how aware he is this morning for being in a 12 hour surgery and having the type of injuries he has.  He is completely coherent, he can’t talk so he was trying to communicate by using his finger and spelling out words.  The neurosurgeon said that at about 6 hours into the surgery they stopped to discuss whether or not to go on and continue to try and work on his spinal chord, they decided that because of his age and how athletic he is to continue on. The neurosurgeon said that they had got his spine almost straight, but not perfect, but they decided that they couldn’t continue on after the 12 hours because with him being face down the risk of him going blind from the pressure on his eyes was too great.  As of now his vision is a bit blurry but they feel that since his pupils are dilating that when the swelling goes down his vision should be okay.  His spinal chord was severely stretched and pushed out of position so there could be possible tears, but they won’t know that until the swelling goes down. Tiffany says that Kevin remembers everything that happened, he and Tiff had a saying that was a joke between them “safety first” and that was the first thing that Kevin finger spelled to her!  Janice said that Kevin cried when the neurosurgeon explained everything but that the neurosurgeon told him that his progress so far is miraculous, so for him to give it time for his body to heal more and then they will see how his spine is doing.  They have given Kevin a spell board now to help him communicate better.  Janice also said that because he was to be face-down for the surgery they had to quickly stitch up his head wound for the surgery, but that a plastic surgeon will come back at a later time to repair his head wounds better.

Janice said they are all so thankful for everyone’s prayers and that they are amazed already at all of the little miracles God has given to them.  She said that at about 2 am Tiff was feeling a bit anxious waiting for Kevin to come out so she went to walk in the hall, when she went out there doors opened and they wheeled Kevin by her on the way to ICU, so she was able to at least get to see him for a minute before he went to recovery.  God is great, even in what might seem to be a small thing to someone else, it’s a great thing to those who are in need of it.  Please pray that the swelling will go down quickly, for his vision to clear up, for complete healing in his whole body, for complete use of his legs, for peace & comfort for Kevin, Tiff, and the families to know that they are enveloped in God’s arms and that he is in complete control of the situation.

10:05 am, July 4th:  From the Stouts: Just received the following text from the hospital  “It will take time for the swelling to go down. Kev is amazing, trying so hard to communicate, finger spelling! Later a plastic surgeon will fix the head wound, it had to be stitched quickly for the 12 hour surgery. He remembers all the details about the accident.”

From Andrew Daymude, via email…

Starting to close him up 12:15AM 7/4/2009, should be out of the OR by 1AM, recovery to follow, back to ICU by 4AM.