Accident Info

On Friday, March 2nd, shortly after lunchtime, Tara was returning from her Townhome to work at NIU. DeKalb was experiencing blizzard like conditions due to the high winds (25mph, gusting to 40mph) and snow. For whatever reason, instead of taking First Street to her workplace, she instead elected to take Annie Glidden road. Somewhere around Dresser road a semi was approaching Tara's car in the other lane. A passenger truck moved out to pass the semi, thereby entering Tara's lane. Her only choice was to drive into the snow-filled ditch to avoid the passenger truck. Once her car entered the snow filled ditch, it started to slide, and her car slid directly into the path of the oncoming semi. She was broad-sided on the passenger side of her car. Tara did have her seat-belt on, but it didn't protect her head from hitting the driver side window, and likely other parts of the vehicle. When the police arrived she was breathing on her own, but she was unconcious. The driver of the passenger truck, after causing Tara to drive into the ditch, did not stop and continued on, ignoring the crash that occurred behind him/her (f**cking a**hole!). The semi driver was only able to identify the passenger truck as being dark colored. Tara was taken to the local DeKalb hospital where they determined that her head trauma was too extensive for them to treat. Tara had a depressed skull fracture on the right side of her skull. She also had multiple orbital fractures around her eyes, thereby causing her to have extreme black eye's with bulging eye-sockets -- referred to as racoon-eyes by the medical establishment. As an example of how hard the collision was, Tara had a ring on her right hand, with a very thick band, which was compressed in half, and the stone was broken out of it. The decision was made to have her transferred to St. Anthony hospital in DeKalb, because they have specialist Neurosurgeons on staff, as well as Trauma Surgeons. Unfortunately, due to the poor weather conditions, they were unable to transfer her via helicoptor, as would be normal. They instead had the helicopter personnel drive Tara in an ambulance to the hospital, which is approximately 1 hour away from DeKalb. They successfully transferred her, and she went into surgery around 4pm.

In surgery they first addressed her depressed skull fracture, and removed the pieces of the skull which had been pushed into her brain. They removed 2 pieces, I believe. Then they cut out part of her skull to (a) give her brain space to expand as it swells from it's injuries, and (b) so they could assess the damage to the brain. They removed the skull on the same right side of her head where the depressed skull fracture occurred. In their investigation of the brain, they determined that she had bruising to both frontal lobes, as well as Subdural Hematoma, Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, and numerous Brain Contusions. She also had multiple Orbital Fractures (around the eyes) and Maxillary fractures (cheeks). They placed a patch and dressing over the portion of the skull that was removed, and inserted a type of instrument in the left side of her skull to allow them to measure the pressure on the brain. Their primary concern was that they effictively monitor the pressure on the brain, since the brain will expand due to swelllng for 3-4 days after an injury. Obviously they want to minimize or keep the brain from swelling more and thereby injuring itself. As the brain expands, since it has no where to expand inside the skull, in compresses downward, thereby damaging and hurting portions of the brain, which then cause more swelling, which then causes more damage...and this cycle can continue until you have brain death. The Doctors also determined that Tara had a Pulminary Contusion to her right lung (bruise to the lung), which was causing her lung not to function properly. The Trauma Surgeon worked on her lung to address the Pulminary Contusion during the the surgery. By this time Tara was on a ventilator.

Kevin had been given a ride to St. Anthony by friends. My dad had called me and he and I had met my mom at Tara's townhouse, where my mother was caring for Kiera after Tara had been transferred from the DeKalb hospital. My dad and I drove up to St. Anthony's. Around 6:30pm the doctors finally finished surgery and came out to discuss the situation with Kevin, my dad and myself. They explained that the surgery went 'as planned', and that they were now going to watch her for the next 3-4 days, specifically focusing on ensuring she received sufficient oxygen to the brain, and that the pressure on the brain caused by the swelling did not exceed the levels they wanted to maintain. Tara was kept on a ventilator to ensure she was breathing. Tara was in a coma. Kevin's parents drove up to be with Kevin and they stayed in a hotel near the hospital. My father and I drove back to Tara/Kevin's townhouse, and my father and my mom stayed with Kiera that night.

On Saturday, the pressure on Tara's brain increased beyond 20, which was a level the Doctors did not want to maintain. They then put her on a barbiturate drug to induce an extremely deep coma. This drug basically shuts down the brain, as well as other functions of the body such as the bowels. The reason for doing this is to decrease the activity in the brain with the hope of reducing the swelling. The good news is that this drug had the intended effect, and her brain pressure was reduced to around 14-15.

On Sunday Tara was still in the same state, and she will likely continue in this state until the Doctors determine to take her off the drug. Once the doctors take her off the drug, it will take up to 72 hrs to flush itself out of her system. After that period, then the Doctors can begin to assess Tara's recovery options. So, we expect that it will not be until next weekend, or early next week (the 12th) before we can determine how she was impacted by the brain damage caused in the accident. After the drug wears-off, the Doctors will either wait for her to (a) regain consciousness and assess her mental capabilities, or (b) if she doesn't regain consciousness, begin to administer some reaction tests to determine her current brain function.

My mom and dad (Sandra and Jim), as well as Kevin's mom and dad (Jay and Elaine) will be taking turns helping Kevin watch Kiera this week. I certainly understand that the distraction of taking care of Kiera helps all of them cope with the situation, rather than allowing them to focus on the negative possibilities.

For those of you who have a medical background, or want to look items up on the internet, the following are the various injuries she has received.

Brain - Subarachnoid Hemorrhage, Subdural Hematoma, Depressed Skull Fracture, multiple Brain Contusions
Face - Orbital Fractures, Maxillary Fractures
Lungs - Pulminary contusion

I'll keep you posted throughout the week if anything changes, or if more information becomes available. Please continue to pray for Tara, and her family, as I know you have all been doing.

Thanks