Quintin: May 27:

What Happened to Quintin?

On April 26, 2010 Quintin experienced what may have been a cerebellar stroke. While crossing the street with his best friend, Quintin fell backward and hit the back of his head on a curb. He was unconscious for several moments, then was able to walk, with assistance, the short distance back into the building. After showing signs of a serious concussion he was taken in an ambulance to Legacy Emanuel hospital.

He was in the ICU at Emanuel until his 29^th birthday, June 5, when he was stable enough to transfer to the hospital’s Trauma Care Unit (TRACU). After nearly a month in TRACU he moved to Vibra Specialty Hospital in Portland.

At the end of October Quintin moved to an adult foster care home in Vancouver, WA. He has excellent around the clock nursing care from a team of people who believe in his potential to make positive progress toward recovery.

At times he seems alert and “awake,” other times not. He still has a tracheostomy tube in his throat and is sometimes on a ventilator to assist with his breathing. He is able to breathe independently; when he's on the vent it's usually there as a precautionary back up when he has a fever or needs his energy for something else that's going on. The trach does not allow air to pass over his vocal cords, but speech therapists can periodically check to see if he’s made progress towards being able to speak.

When he fell his occipital bone was broken, causing a brain bleed. The bleeding obscured the injured area, so we may never know the cause of the fall. It took several months for the internal swelling around the injury to subside. Now that the swelling is gone, CT scans have shown that there are damaged areas in the cerebellum, pons, and brain stem. Typically, brain tissue does not grow back, but it IS possible for connections in the brain to reform, and that’s what we are patiently waiting for now.

May 27:

Q had a good day yesterday. The respiratory therapist was in (as she is every day) and took Q off the ventilator. He breathed on his own for 15 MINUTES! YAY! He was taking half as many breaths as she wanted him to, but they were twice as big as they needed to be. He managed to keep his oxygen saturation level reasonable and his other stats remained good.

Great news!!

4 comments:

Unknown said...: May 28, 2010 at 10:57 PM; This is great news! I almost said "breathtaking"...
Seriously, taking a few breaths is huge progress. Way to go, Q!

J Stirling
Unknown said...: June 4, 2010 at 5:39 PM; Thank you for setting this up and sharing this information! Much love, Jane
Unknown said...: June 4, 2010 at 9:08 PM; This incredible news, so happy to hear it.

Love and all my best thoughts, Kieran
Unknown said...: June 5, 2010 at 9:50 AM; Thanks for the blog. So many of us love Quintin and are so far away. We love the little steps of progress because they all add up to recovery. Keep them coming. SAE

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