Guest Blogger Sandy-Matt's Accident 5 years ago

Hi Everyone, this is Sandy, and I am the guest blogger for the day.  Viewer discretion is advised today because some of the pictures may bother some people.  As parents we harp on not drinking and driving; texting while you were driving, etc., here is an example where speed changed our lives forever.

 

Five years ago today, September 14, 2008, my Matthew (who was 17 at the time) was involved in a car accident.  It was 10:28 am on a Sunday morning.  There was no alcohol or drugs involved; just a kid who was mad at his parents and made a horrible decision.   He was driving 85 mph in a 30 mph road and less than one mile from his house he lost control of the car and ended up in a telephone pole.  It was a day I wish I could forget but I remember every second from the time the police showed up and told me that Matt was being air-lifted to the hospital; to the end of the day with Matt being in a coma, hooked up to machines.

Matt was sitting in the passenger seat and as you can see he took the blunt of the impact. 

 

 

 

 

It took them approximately 2 hours to get the 2 boys out of the car.  At the time they thought 2 more kids were ejected from the car because when Matt came to, in the car, he told them there were 4 of them in the car.  He was wrong, luckily.   They did some minor repair on Matt in the car (stapled gashes closed).  Once they got him out they did some more repair and in the helicopter they incubated him (I think that is what they call it when they put the respirator in).  

They had to take the boy driving out first, as Matt was trapped behind him.  The boy suffered a head injury and a problem with his lung.  He is fine and was released from the hospital 3 days after the accident.  He was later charged with driving an uninspected car and driving too fast for road conditions.  To my knowledge he was fined and never even lost his license. 

 Matthew ended up with 2 broken shoulders; a cracked sternum; 4 broken ribs; his pelvis broke in 2 places; his hip broke in 2 places, his femur broke in 2 places; a collapsed lung; his diaphragm was ripped lose by his liver being squashed out of place.  He had multiple cuts and a serious one on his face.   He had a chip out of his neck (but luckily didn’t break it) and had internal bleeding.  He had lost most of his blood and they ended up having to give him 17 bags and 3 bags of platelets over the next 5 days. 

On the first day; they did surgery to stop the internal bleeding but not to fix anything else as they were concerned if he would make it through the trauma of the surgeries.  They put him in a coma on a respirator.  All the family showed up at the hospital; along with about 50 of his friends and their parents.  Unfortunately for Grandma and Grandpa Hagadorn they were in NC with your parents and had to drive home.  They got in at midnight and came straight to the hospital. 

 On the second day; they did a second surgery to put a filter in to stop the blood clots.  They were still concerned about his ability to handle the big surgery.  Finally on day 3 they had to go ahead and do the surgery and try to repair some of the damage.  They decided to start with the liver & diaphragm repair; if he was okay then they would try to fix his face/ear; if he was still doing well then they would attempt to fix the leg.  While fixing the liver they saw that it had a cut/piece missing but it would repair itself.  They fixed the diaphragm and didn’t find any other damage inside.  They stapled his chest from breast to waist.   They then tried to fix his face the best they could.   At that point Matt was still stable so they decided to proceed with the leg repair.  They put a rod from his hip to his knee and screws to keep the leg together.   Below are pictures of Matt while in the coma after the surgeries.

 

 

 

 

Matt stayed in the coma for 5 days before they woke him up.  During that time he got pneumonia plus an infection they couldn’t find.   When he woke up he spent 5 more days in the ICU and had terrible dementia and would pull the tubes out of his arms; try to get out of bed; etc.  They got him up out of bed 6 days after the accident and he was able to walk 6 steps – it was very exciting.  After 10 days he was moved into a regular room and could start getting visitors.  We ended up celebrating my birthday and Joey’s birthday at the hospital that year.    11 days after his accident they found out that his gallbladder was bad and they had to do more surgery to take it out.   

 

 

 

 Matt was finally released from the hospital 3.5 weeks later.  He came home in a wheelchair because of all the broken bones he couldn’t use crutches.  He has had more surgery since to take a locking mechanism out of his leg as it was starting to stick out the side.  He has already got advanced arthritis in his right leg and knee.  He has multiple scars and has no wish to have them fixed.  They are a reminder of one of the worst days for all of us. 

 

When Matt came home; we moved everything out of the computer room and created a bedroom for him.  All the family pulled together and the whole time Matt was in the hospital he always had a family member with him.  When he got home, again family pulled through and we were with him throughout the next month at home and for the next 7 months during his recuperation/rehabilitation.  

So the next time you get in a car drunk, mad or think about texting I hope you reconsider.  Luckily Matt survived but I hope none of us have to ever go through it again.

 

After the fact we can laugh about various things that happened…here are just a few.

1) The police were taking me to the hospital before Davey showed up at the house and I found out you cannot get out of the back of a police car.

 

2) When Matt came out of the coma he wanted his Dad.  When Uncle Dave showed up he didn’t believe it was his Dad and made him show his driver’s license…and then Matt says “awe shit”.

3) When he had dementia he was forever flashing his junk at everyone who walked into his room asking them to take the catheter out.

4) I fell asleep one night and he started punching me, said he was stabbing me because I kept staring at him.