{Karlton Bontrager}

Thanks for contacting people for us and for him. His friends here have been great. They’ve stayed and talked with us, helping us feel more positive about the experience. They have great stories to tell about Karlton . . . about his work, his engaging personality, etc. We did a lot of smiling and laughing about him. He really is such a special person!

Friends tell us that he and a friend were snowboarding Friday. They took different trials, and he might have gotten off the trail, exploring on his own. It seems that his snowboard hit a rock that sent him flying. He landed on his face, hitting another rock with his head above the right eye. The ski patrol found him. It just so happened that a group from the hospital was out that direction. They immediately went to rescue him, and he was sent by helicopter to a town 3 hrs. away by car.

The accident was quite a blow to the brain with many fractures around the eye and down to the jaw. The doctors told us that he was in surgery to remove parts of the skull so that the brain had room to swell. The CAT scan yesterday revealed that the brain was shifting to the left side b/c of crowding. That’s why they took him back into surgery again today. They want the brain to stay in place. I was hopeful that since it wasn’t a neck injury, that he’d likely not lose the use of his limbs. But they didn’t give us any assurances. Vision in the right eye is probably the most certainly precarious right now. For the rest, we’ll have to see how he responds. He is out of surgery now.

He has been unconscious since the accident. At this point, the coma is drug induced. The doctors lessened the drugs today to see how he’d respond. Yesterday when they did that, he made grasping motions with his hands as if trying to pull at the tubes that I imagine are in his nose and/or throat. That, they tell is, is a natural response. But today his responses were more limited. He just extended his hand, no grasping motions. So that was further evidence that there was pressure on the brain and another reason to go back into surgery.

That’s about all we can tell you for now other than that we’re in really good hands. The hospital arranged a hotel for us to spend the nite. We’ll probably go there at some point, but may make that our base of operations as we try to spend most of our time in the hospital.

Thanks for all you’ve done and for your positive thoughts and prayers.