Saturday, August 13, 2011

What happened...

What happened?  I wish I knew.  All I have are bits and pieces given to me by witnesses to the accident and medical personnel who attended him initially.

On Thursday, mid-day, Dan was heading south, over the Fremont Bridge.  The light was green and he had the right of way.  I don't know where he was going but when I got home late that night, there were tools all over the boat and he was clearly working on some electrical and battery-related stuff as he told me he would be when I left for work that morning.

A car heading in the opposite direction, made a left turn and for some reason didn't see Dan and hit him hard, denting the front of the car pretty impressively.  Dan was thown off his scooter and landed 40 feet away.  For those of you who might be challenged to think what 40 feet looks like, our boat is 42 feet.  It's far. His scooter ended up in the middle of the intersection, bashed, broken, wheel off, totaled.  Reports I've heard from witnesses say people rushed to Dan and attended to him until the medics came.  Police roped off the area and it was quite a scene.  The link below will give you some idea and show you some photos.

http://www.fremontuniverse.com/

Fortunately no one else was hurt.

I received a call shortly after 3:00.  Dan was on the phone, calling from a strange phone number (not his cell) and told me his scooter had been "crunched" and he was in Ballard/Swedish hospital.  I rushed there only to find they had no record of him.  I tried to call back the number but there was no answer.  Tried his cell.  No answer.  Tried the number again.  Finally a nurse picked up, answering "Harborview ER."  That was one question answered.  She then put Dan on.   I started asking him questions, "Is anything broken?  Are you on meds?" Etc. He said no - nothing is broken.  Didn't know what happened.  Didn't know if he was on meds.   Finally the nurses started getting hip to the fact that he had no idea what was going on and got on the phone with me.  I told them that he sounded really odd and they agreed to order a CT (brain) scan.  I then began to panic, called the girls and Aileen. 

Made my way to Harborview slowly because of rush hour traffic.  So frustrating!  Got to the ER and Dan was having his scan.  Came back and - wow - his face was bloody and bruised.  He had road rash on his back and legs and butt.  Three ribs broken (7, 8 & 9, left side for you nurses in the club).  The worst thing - for me - is his disorientation.  The CT scan came back showing a brain bleed so the Neuro team watched him pretty carefully (so far, no improvement - but not worse either.)

I'm going to post this now and finish it later so you can at least start getting caught up.

We are fine.  Julia & Sarah are amazing.  Aileen is our rock.

And all of you, our dear, dear friends and family, are the thing keeping us all going.  Thanks for the love, prayers, good wishes, caring.  KEEP IT COMING PLEASE!

p.s.  no visitors for now.  family only.  thanks.




2 comments:

  1. Dan, I'm far away now, but close in spirit. Get well damn soon, okay? So sorry that happened to you, but hang in there. ---Kiefer

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  2. I wish I could be there with you guys. But I send my love and have Uncle danny in my thoughts. Love you!

    --Jordan

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