Prayers for my father in-law

(BA BUSA @ Jun. 21 2007,19:41) Sorry to hear about the bad news Bro
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hope that everything works out for him and the family.

I'm driving right through Redding on my trip to mjn's...you or Tina need anything
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Naw.. were good.. I just got off the phone with Tina, she is going into see him right now.

I talked to Austin and Austin said he is in the room cracking jokes and stuff, so he seems to be handling it better than we thought he would..

I know there is bound to be times that he is going to get depressed and stuff, but hopefully him starting out the process trying to keep his chin up will help.

That is one of the things that sucks, guy is a really nice guy, never seen him get angry, never heard him saying anything negative about anyone. just a real laid back guy


Found out today the guys driving the cement truck saved his life, after he hit the truck the guys stopped and ran over to him and saw his leg was pretty much severed and he was bleeding out, they ran back to the cab of the truck, got some bungee cords and tied his leg off. from what I understand that is what saved his life, if they didn't think to do that he probably would have bled out and died right there...

So things definitely could have been worse and sounds like it was real close to being allot worse...
 
Dang Ron....

Rich called me tonite and filled me in...that is tough man...


Prayers to your family. Keep us posted....
M
 
Ron, my prayers go out to you and your family. If there's anything we can do, please don't hesitate to ask.

Send my best to your wife.
 
(rubbersidedown @ Jun. 25 2007,13
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) How is he Ron?
its rough Andy.

I called him Friday night and turns out that yeah, they amputated above the knee, way above the knee, he only has 6 inches of his leg left, just enough to put prosthetics on.

I was trying to make him feel better (yeah like that is possible) and I was telling him that he was natuallry going to go through times of depression and that we would all be there for him and do whatever we could. Up until that point the conversation was ok, then after I said that, thinking I was giving him support, he just lost it and started balling. I think he was holding everything in until I said that and then he just lost it.. man did I feel like crap. I didn’t mean to make him cry and I was trying to give him some kind of comfort. I guess I suck at it.

Also found out the cement truck driver saved his life, when he ran back to where my father in-law was, the lower part of his leg from the knee down was unrecognizable, the knee itself was gone, just a big hole where the knee should have been and everything below that was just ground meat I guess, the doctor said you couldn’t even tell it was a foot or leg.

So the driver sees this, sees blood just gushing out of his leg (or whats left of it) and puts a belt on it and cinches it down real tight to stop the blood flow.

The doctor said that was the only thing that saved his life, even with the tourniquet he came into the ER with a BP of 50. The doctor said he was close to death and if the driver didn’t put the belt on there was no question that he would have been dead

Above the knee he had a compound fracture in the leg. There was so much damage to the leg and so much missing and ground up there was no saving it.

Then, while in the hospital some administrative bean counter type goes into his room and explains to him that VA (he is a veteran) is probably not going to pay for it, and the ICU room was costing him $5000.00 a day and he already had a $100,000 bill.

Well my father in law is a real nice guy, doesn’t want to be a burden on anyone etc etc, so now he is feeling the pressure of the financial responsibility and he starts telling my wife and his other daughter that he cant pay that kind of money and it would have been better if he just died.


Well the good news is, he is alive and the driver did save his life, second good news is the hospital bean counter came in the very next day and said he had good news that the VA was going to pay 100% of all medical expenses, but they needed to move him to a VA hospital as soon as he was ready.

Just sucks. Guy is retired, was working at a camp site maintaining it, would go there during the week and stay in his little trailer for a few days, go back to his house where him and his gf lived for a few days. Life was pretty good.

And while things without a doubt could have been much worse (at least for the family) things are going to be pretty hard on him trying to cope at his age with living life in a new way.
 
(thrasherfox @ Jun. 25 2007,13:56) I was trying to make him feel better (yeah like that is possible) and I was telling him that he was natuallry going to go through times of depression and that we would all be there for him and do whatever we could. Up until that point the conversation was ok, then after I said that, thinking I was giving him support, he just lost it and started balling. I think he was holding everything in until I said that and then he just lost it.. man did I feel like crap. I didn’t mean to make him cry and I was trying to give him some kind of comfort. I guess I suck at it.
Actually,no you dont Ron. He needed that.Its part of the healing process. Better in front of you,than the women folk in his life. Right? It seems sorta odd,but he will need to stay strong for them aswell. Losing a leg...wholly fug Ron...can you imagine. I feel like a fuggin cry baby for whinning about my life at times.

Lets thank God for the VA too. I figured they'd step up,even before I got to the end of your post.

Things are rough....stay in his corner. (like I even have to tell you
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Tell your wife Rubb is so very sorry.
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Andy.
 
Sorry to hear man. If there's anything at all any of us can do, let us know. Our prayers go out to you.
 
(rubbersidedown @ Jun. 25 2007,15:28)
(thrasherfox @ Jun. 25 2007,13:56) I was trying to make him feel better (yeah like that is possible) and I was telling him that he was natuallry going to go through times of depression and that we would all be there for him and do whatever we could. Up until that point the conversation was ok, then after I said that, thinking I was giving him support, he just lost it and started balling. I think he was holding everything in until I said that and then he just lost it.. man did I feel like crap. I didn’t mean to make him cry and I was trying to give him some kind of comfort. I guess I suck at it.
Actually,no you dont Ron. He needed that.Its part of the healing process. Better in front of you,than the women folk in his life. Right? It seems sorta odd,but he will need to stay strong for them aswell. Losing a leg...wholly fug Ron...can you imagine. I feel like a fuggin cry baby for whinning about my life at times.

Lets thank God for the VA too. I figured they'd step up,even before I got to the end of your post.

Things are rough....stay in his corner. (like I even have to tell you
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)

Tell your wife Rubb is so very sorry.
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Andy.
I know Andy.

And no, I cant imagine.. I was taking a shower the other day, and I turned around and I thought to myself "How in the heck would you take a shower standing up with one leg?"

I mean I have been thinking allot about trying to do things with one leg and I couldn't even imagine.

I know people overcome stuff like this all the time, I have seen and read about people that are double leg amputee's and they run on special prosthetics's

So we are totally thankful he is still alive, and he could have lost more than just a leg easily.. but dam.. still I cant even imagine....

I will pass on your condolences to Tina.. thanks Andy
 
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