We left the room where the doctor described Michael's injuries, and began the waiting game. We had to wait until he was settled into his room in the NSICU (Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit), which was a few hours later...
How I wish I'd taken a picture of Michael when we first saw him laying in that hospital bed. He would never believe how badly injured he was, and how difficult it was for us to see him laying there, in a coma, with one eye swollen, dried blood in his beard, a trach in his neck, with a neck brace carefully placed... tubes, wires, a shunt in his brain to drain out any fluid accumulation (the machine would beep loudly and lights would flash when the fluid level got too high... it was maddening!!), IVs, catheter, and there he was, just laying there, with machines helping him with every bodily function imaginable. He had an external fixator on his right leg, because his femur was so badly broken (it looked like a rack of lamb in the x-rays), and they didn't want it to heal wrong. As the days went by, they discovered his liver was lacerated, and he had numerous surgeries to try and repair his right leg, liver, broken forearm... He also suffered numerous facial fractures, which they couldn't repair, so we all just prayed they'd heal correctly.
There were phone calls to friends and family, near and far. Family traveled to visit with him, unsure of if he was going to survive his injuries. His friends gathered around him. A local TV station, when reporting on the 11PM news the night of the crash, said that he had died... and many of his friends and family heard that report and were mourning his loss. But Michael was (and still is) a fighter...
There weren't many facts shared in those first hours and days -- at least not that I'm aware of. I'm not sure when I learned that the crash happened because Michael's friend fell asleep at the wheel, or any of the other particulars of that night. I was kind of in a fog -- I called my job and told them what was going on, and that I wasn't sure when I'd be back. My daughter Lindsay called her job and told them the same, and she also signed out of school to be with me. We were blessed to be provided a room at the Kiwanis Family House in Sacramento, very close to the hospital. Honestly, at the end of a long day of watching the machines keep Michael alive, and praying nonstop, the KFH was like an oasis. I'd take notes of things the doctors said, tests they said they wanted to do, and would look them up on the computer at night, so I'd better understand what was going on. Michael's friends hung out with us in the waiting room, and would be a great comfort to us. At one point we had to cut the visitor list way down, because all the activity of people going in and out of the room was too stimulating for Michael, and his brain needed to rest. Michael had amazing nurses caring for him in the NSICU!! Samantha, John, and John's wife, Aida...
Michael was in a coma for 4 weeks... 4 long, agonizing, frustrating, difficult weeks... And then, one day, his eyelids started fluttering. Ever so gently, but enough movement that I just knew he'd open his eyes soon!! I'd stand by his bed telling him to open his eyes, that I wanted the nurses to see his beautiful eyes... and then, one day, he opened them. The coma was over, which doesn't mean he just woke up and said, "where am I??" It doesn't happen that way. But he was in there...
Sadly, his friend Trisha Watson, was laid to rest a week after the crash. A young life, only 21 years old, over before it had even begun...
Little by little, progress was made. Michael underwent surgery for his broken jaw, which was pretty extensive. He then moved from the NSICU to the SICU (Surgical Intensive Care Unit). New nurses, a new room, but we were all on the same "watch," just anticipating the next step forward that he would take. Remembering the first doctor's description of Michael's injuries, the morning of the crash, we had no idea if he could hear us, if he would be able to speak, or if he even knew who we were. After a week or so in the SICU, he was transferred to Kaiser Hospital in Sacramento...