On Monday June 1, 2009 my husband Joe was in a head-on collision on his way to work in Crestview Florida. This blog is for his family and friends to get up to date information on his condition and recovery.

What happened?

Joe drives 58 miles round trip every morning from our home in Cantonment to his warehouse in Crestview. He remembers driving east on Airport Road in Crestview, topping a hill and then……BAM. He can only say that it was loud and out of control.

The trooper’s report tells us that Joe somehow crossed to the west bound lane near the top of that hill. Other than that we’ll never really know what happened.

The NW Florida Daily News article:

CRESTVIEW — Three people were seriously injured in an early morning crash on Airport Road in Crestview.

The 5:30 a.m. crash near Red Oak Drive sent Randy Arnold, a 60-year-old Crestview man, to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.

In the other vehicle, Joseph Rollo, a 28-year-old Cantonment man, was also seriously injured and taken to Baptist Hospital in Pensacola. Rollo’s passenger, who has not been identified, was taken to North Okaloosa Medical Center with serious injuries, according to a Florida Highway Patrol press release.

View additional photographs from the scene.

Arnold was driving a 1987 Chevy pick-up westbound on Airport Road when Rollo’s vehicle, which was heading eastbound, traveled into his lane. The left front portions of both vehicles collided.

Arnold’s truck rolled onto its roof on the shoulder. Residents helped get the driver of the truck out with crowbars and their hands until fire crews got on scene. They also put out a small fire.

Rollo was pinned by the dashboard and had to be cut out, according to witnesses on scene.

Charges are pending, according to the report.

All involved were wearing seat belts and alcohol was not a factor, the report said.

Airport Road was blocked for more than an hour, but both lanes were re-opened as of 7:35 a.m. Traffic was routed on the west end through Grandview Heights and on the east end onto John Givens Road.

(From Chrissy: There was not a passenger in Joe’s car.)

Why’s he in the hospital?

When the car and truck collided, the truck used my Cobalt as a ramp and then flipped over in a ditch on the westbound side of the road. The weight of the truck crushed in the driver’s side roof and door area onto Joe causing his left hip to dislocate and severe lacerations to his left arm, leg, knee and hand (no tattoos were damaged in the making of this crash)

Joe was extricated (read: what the crash didn’t tear up, the fire department finished) from the vehicle and taken by Baptist Life-Flight to the Baptist Hospital trauma center in Pensacola, FL.   If you’ve known Joe for any amount of time you’re well aware that this helicopter ride was not his favorite part. Luckily he passed out from the pain (he does remember the paramedic telling him to keep his arm elevated but not to touch her breast) for the trip and only remembers waking up several days later.

What Joe doesn’t remember…

Joe was taken into surgery at Baptist Hospital. His surgeon, Dr. Stromeyer, completed the following that morning:

• cleaned the upper arm lacerations
• cleaned, sutured and placed a drain in the deepest laceration on the lower left arm
• cleaned and sutured the laceration on his left knee
• placed the left hip back into the socket (at this time the surgeon believed that the socket began to shatter on the pelvis side. He stopped what he was doing and began running more CT scans and x-rays to determine the next step)

Prior to the surgery Joe was placed on a ventilator due to the anesthesthesia. During his intubation he aspirated and ended up staying on that ventilator until Wednesday (I’ll get to the removal in a few).

Monday through Wednesday Joe stayed on the ventilator and on sedation medicine called Diprivan.

Periodically his nurses would slow the Diprivan medicine to bring him further out of sedation so that he could tell them what his pain scale was and so that we could “talk” to him during the scheduled visiting hours.

Joe communicated to us by tracing letters on to our palms to spell out  words. Deciphering the words and letters proved to be difficult at times however, it was nice to have some form of communication from him. He never came completely out of the sedation so the conversations were short-lived and sometimes non-sensical.

Wednesday (6/3/09) afternoon the nurse told us that she completely freaked out when she made her mid-afternoon rounds. It seems that Joe became alert and coherent, felt as though he was suffocating on something in his throat and began pulling the ventilator and feeding tubes. He had both tubes pulled completely out of his nose and throat by the time she made it to his room to check on him.

During the removal he caused no damage to his esophagus, so the pulmonologist decided he could remain off of the ventilator until the next surgery.

Why did he go all the way to Birmingham Alabama?

After reviewing the post-surgery CT scans, Dr. Stromeyer told us that he would need to be transferred to the University of South Alabama at Mobile or to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. We were all praying for USA at Mobile so that the trip wouldn’t be so exhaustive for Joe however, God seemed to have other plans.

Thursday (6/4/09) morning my Baptist Hospital social worker, Kim, flew into the waiting room with great news. UAB had approved the surgery and wanted him transferred immediately.

The ride for him was strenuous and exhausting. He left Pensacola at approximately 1pm CST by Ambulance and arrived in Birmingham at approximately 4pm CST. One of the paramedics transporting him called me to give me an update and said that “the trip was fast but bumpy”.

What makes UAB so great?

UAB is a teaching hospital. All of the doctors look like they are 16 years old at most however, they appear to be quite knowledgeable. The Orthopaedics surgeon, Dr. Stewart, is said to be the creme de la creme .

A quick bio:

Rena L. Stewart, MD, FRCS (C)

Dr. Stewart joined the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Orthopaedics in the summer of 2006.

Her Clinical Specialty is Orthopaedic Trauma, with an emphasis on foot and elbow injuries.

Dr. Stewart began her Orthopaedic education at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada and received a Bachelor of Science Degree (Honors) in Zoology from the University of Calgary.  She received her degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Calgary, in Calgary, Canada.

Dr. Stewart spent her residency years in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

She followed with two Fellowships; the first, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN., in Orthopaedic Trauma; the second, at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA., in Orthopaedic Trauma and Trauma Research.

Dr. Stewart served as Head of Orthopaedic Trauma at Indiana University and Chief of Orthopaedics at Wishard Health Services from 2002 to 2006.

She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Dr. Stewart’s research interests are Fracture and Bone Gap Healing.  Other areas of both clinical and research interest include complex fractures of the foot and elbow.  She is currently principle investigator or co-investigator on several human and animal studies in these areas.  Dr. Stewart has a strong interest in medical education.

What exactly did Joe break?

Joe has an acetabular fracture:

The acetabulum is the socket of the ball-and-socket hip joint. The top of the thigh bone (femur) forms the ball, and the socket (acetabulum) is part of the pelvic bone. The acetabulum is part of the pelvis. The part of the pelvis that forms the hip socket is the acetabulum. The acetabulum is round in shape, and covered inside with smooth cartilage. This cartilage forms the smooth surface of the hip joint.  An acetabular fracture occurs when the socket of the hip joint is broken. This is much less common than most hip fractures, where the ball of the ball-and-socket joint is broken.

Read the Post-Surgery Discussion by clicking here.