Update

As of yesterday, Jon was told that even though he could not talk--due to the tracheotomy--he could communicate by mouthing words. His first words: "Take this off" referring to all the stuff he has to wear and put up with. The nurse sympathetically replied that she couldn't do that and was there anything else she could do. He immediately replied, "Take this off!" probably with as much feeling as you can get without benefit of sound. Her reply was the same as before. I think there was one more round before the nurse gave up questioning him

He is having some problems with the respirator. They tried to take him off the oxygen to see if he could breathe completely on his own and gave up. In fact, they went from administering one breath a minute to 6 breaths a minute. The turtle shell brace came without the proper rigging to be attached to head gear so that will be reserved for another day.

There is still no sign of swelling of the brain and the nurse reports that they give him a neurological assessment every 2 hours.

With the accident being so close to the week-end he has had a lot of visitors. If you are visiting Jon please be sure to sign the guest book we have for him and leave a message. One of us will read these messages and any cards he gets to him every day.

Many thanks for all your calls and volunteering to help when needed.