{Karlton Bontrager}

Good news! Karlton “graduated” out of the ICU yesterday. His breathing stabilized enough for him to go to the High Dependency Unit (HDU). They moved him about 2:00p in the afternoon.

Yesterday morning, while I was emailing updates, Choy (his mom) and the nurse washed his hair. The staff have been great about shaving him too. He looked really spiffy.

We’ve made friends with another couple whose 40+ year old son is also in the unit . . . for the 2nd time! 20 years ago he was in an accident and fully recovered. But recently he was mugged, and he’s back again. The point of telling you this is that we compare notes from time to time about our sons’ progress. They said that from across the room in ICU they can detect Karlton’s nodding his head as we speak to him. That’s really encouraging!

After the move yesterday afternoon, three friends from Queenstown stopped in and stayed quite a while. Later, Sam, a Dunedin friend, came too. Two of the friends from Queenstown were going to stay at his place for the night. He’d been out shopping for blankets at a thrift shop. When he mentioned that he needed the blankets because of his friend’s snowboarding accident, the people in the shop insisted that he take the blankets without paying for them. They wanted to give him some money too. People over here are so good!

Talked to the people in charge of Karlton’s health insurance. They will pay for our lodging. They will also pay for a round-trip ticket for one of us. Thank goodness he subscribed to a generous health plan!

Things have been a wee bit less comforting this morning. Karlton seemed to have rested well over the night, but he got into breathing distress about 8:00a. Fluid had accumulated in his left lung. Though the nursing staff suction his trach and get him to cough at intervals, they’re less able to clear the left side, and he has less control there too. The machines indicated that he was getting lower percentages of oxygen, and his heart rate kept climbing. The final decision was to return him to ICU for the morning. The nurses assured us that we didn’t have to move all of his things because he’d be returning to HDU in the afternoon. We certainly hope so.

He’s made so many giant strides forward that we shouldn’t be discouraged by a baby step backwards. We’re convinced that he’s in great hands here. We’ll just have to hold on tight. Your continued prayers, positive thoughts, and best wishes are always appreciated. We have also been getting many messages forwarded from the website and promise to read them all to him.

The ICU freely let us use a CD player. The HDU, on the other hand, doesn’t have one. So we plan to buy him a Discman today so that once he returns to HDU he can continue listening to his music.

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Karlton did really well yesterday sitting up in the Lay-Z-Boy recliner. The changed posture and the new requirements to support his breath exhausted him. He did a lot of sleeping. He was also successful with the new ventilator. The doctors are encouraged, and we’ve been told repeatedly that he’s likely to be moving to another ward where he’ll be more independent.

In the meantime, the hospital is gearing up today for its annual mock crisis. We’re told that the police and fire brigades will have the hospital cordoned off, and no one will get in–not even hospital administrators or high fallutin doctors–without a valid hospital ID. We’ll grab a bite to eat before noon, when it all starts, and then hunker down to see what happens. It’ll be interesting to see how they balance intensive care for the actual patients with readiness exercises with mock ones.

The woman who was snowboarding with Karlton on Friday stopped by yesterday. It was so good to talk with her and learn more details of the accident. According to her, the snow conditions were good, they stayed on intermediate-level trails, and he was not taking any undue risks. She snowboards with a helmet, and he’d been asking about it, apparently considering the possibility of buying one for himself. She works on the slopes, and he’d often catch up with her over her lunch break. They’d do a couple of runs together until she had to go back to work.

Friday was her day off, and they’d been snowboarding together all day, having done about 8 runs. It was their last run for the day. Toward the bottom of the run, she would always ski toward the right and he toward the left, their vision of each other blocked by some rocks. But they’d meet at the bottom to catch the lift up again together. This time his friend was in the lead and so she wasn’t able to see Karlton as they came down the hill. When she got to the bottom and he didn’t join her, she assumed that he’d stopped to help somebody out.

Somebody from the ski resort asked her to help do the final sweep for the day, ensuring that everybody was down from the mountain. So she got to go up one more time. She rode the life with someone from the ski patrol, and she noticed that he got a call just as they got off the lift. She found out later that the call was about Karlton. But she’d already begun the final sweep.

Towards the bottom, she noticed a collection of people from the Ski Patrol. She caught up with them and saw it was Karlton who had been hurt. That was really surprising to her, she said. Even though he was a rank beginner this year, he had worked really hard at learning to snowboard well. She’s much more experienced than he, but he would often give her tips about improving her form. She thinks it was just a random accident. . . a rock in the wrong place at the wrong time. For us as parents, it was a relief to learn these details and know that Karlton had been taking adequate safety precautions.

The Ski Patrol must have assumed that Karlton was Japanese. They called in a Japanese interpreter for him. His friend told the Ski Patrol that he was American, but in all the confusion, somehow the word didn’t get to the interpreter. That poor person stayed around for the longest time hoping to be helpful.

This morning Karlton got a beautiful bouquet from Heather, his housemate at Hamilton. It had orchids, Dutch iris, and many more beautiful flowers. Ethan, from the rubgy team at Hamilton, sent flowers yesterday. The florist sent up a card, saying we could”cash it in” for real flowers whenever Karlton was ready. The same happened with the bouquet sent from Zentropy (Jennifer’s work).

Hope all is well with you. We’re doing well. It’s always a delight to hear from everyone.

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Yesterday afternoon KS had the tracheostomy (Kiwi for tracheotomy, I guess). Before, he had the ventilator tube down his mouth. It had to be tied onto his head, and they tied it so tightly that he looked really uncomfortable, with his lips sqeezed b/w the ties. Also, he’d yawn and use his tongue to try to push the mouthpiece out. But now he doesn’t have to do that. His face looks more relaxed w/out any tubes in it.

The plan is to move him to another unit, one with slightly less intensive care. It’s a neurosugical unit with a dependency ward. That means that instead of a 1:1 RN to patient unit, he’ll be in a 1:3 setting. He’ll still be heavily monitored, but they don’t want to have him on any kind of ventilator. The major obstacle at the moment is his breathing. He is breathing on his own, but he’s not fully inflating (or is it deflating?) the alveoli with each breath. This morning the RN put him on a different ventilor for 30 mins. to encourage him to fill and empty his lungs completely. He did well at that, and later she’ll put him on it again for 60 mins. and then keep increasing the time according to his success.

She also plans to sit him up in a Lay-Z-Boy recliner today. That will encourage his diaphragm to support his breathing more.

He continues to be active in the bed. The RN reported that his sheets were in good order when she arrived at 7:00a, but by 7:20 when we arrived, they were pulled out again. He’s taken to using his right hand to grab the railing on the left side and pull himself over on the left. In fact, Mom started massaging his back, and he did just that to give her more space to work with. He also uses his fingers to play with us, catching our fingers in his or tapping us on the hand. Such activities are alternated with periods of sleep.

Maree, the RN today, said that he tried to move his left leg a bit last night. Wow!

His gang of friends stopped by again last evening. They are such really nice people with lots of good energy. They really keep us going.

When we got back to the hotel room last night, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Bunac, the group that sponsored Karlton’s stay in NZ. Another article appeared in yesterday’s newspaper. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring it with us to the University to send it along to you. They’ve got all the facts right, now, so we feel less urgency to respond to the media’s request for interviews.

We sneaked over to the University while the crew was X-raying KS. They should be done by now, so we’ll head back. Thanks again for being so wonderful.

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It sounds as if Karlton is making progress each day.

I called the hospital last night, and my mother seems to think that Karlton is able to see, at least to some degree, through his left eye. She said that as he was sitting in his chair, she was doing something else nearby (not touching him), and he kicked her to get her attention.

Also yesterday, Jennifer called the hospital while my parents were out, but was able to talk to Karlton a bit. The nurse told her that his eyelids were fluttering as he listened to her on the phone. Later, my mother returned and asked him if Jenn had called; he nodded his head a little. Mom claims that while I was talking to him, his heart rate slowed a bit and that he was moving his mouth as if to try to answer me.

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We’re so excited. So many good things have happened. Last night when I returned from emailing at the university, a Chinese energy healer was there. Mom seemed to be comfortable with his work, and we could see marked changes in KS’s behavior. KS had been so restless before, reaching out with his right leg as if trying to explore the space around him, but sometimes nearly kicking anyone who was nearby. After the energy session, he settled into peaceful rest.

Again, people have been so wonderful. One of his friends stopped by yesterday morning about 7:15a on her way to work. As we were leaving the hospital at 9:00p, we ran into another friend on her way in to visit him. She’d been working all day and stopped by on her way home. Another friend brought in bags of pastries from the supermarket where she works. That covered what we needed to eat last night with enough for this morning and still more left over! Rest assured that we are in loving hands.

All of KS’s movements so far have been with his right arm and leg. That’s because the damage is to the right side of his brain. The only thing he was able to do on his left side yesterday was open his eye occasionally. This morning, however, we detected a small movement with his left arm. When asked to repeat it, however, he moved his right instead. It looks as if he’s having to use a different part of his brain to do the tasks he used to with his left.

He’s scheduled for a tracheostomy this morning. That is, they’re going to open an airway in his throat so he won’t have to have the air tube in his mouth. The fear in removing the airway is that his tongue will fall back and block his throat. The trachostomy will allow air to flow even if that should happen. It sounds scarey, but hospital staff assure is that it’s standard procedure and can be reversed when he’s healthier.

The press keeps trying to get an interview with us. Haven’t quite decided how we’ll handle that. Want to bring that up with the hospital social worker.

One of Karlton’s friends went back to Queenstown to start a campaign encouraging people to wear helmets when they snowboard. Great idea, huh?

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I called the hospital at 7 p.m. today (Monday – Pacific time) and for the first time, they were able to say that he’s going to survive.

He was brought out of heavy sedation earlier today and there are many good signs. He’s been trying to open his eyes, and he’s been moving his right arm and leg. Mom says he squeezed her hand when she asked him to.

At this point he is still paralyzed on his left side, and it looks like he doesn’t have vision in his right eye. We are hoping that it’s not permanent – but it’s too early to tell. There’s still a long, long road toward recovery, but at least we know he’s on it.

My sister, one of his friends in L.A., and I all received mail from him today. A nice coincidence.

Thank you again for all your support. I’ve been passing on messages to him through my parents. I know that all the love, prayer and support is helping him recover.

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Hi-wanted to update you on my brother’s condition. Yesterday he underwent a second round of surgery to remove more damaged brain tissue. It seemed to be successful, as his brain is pretty much in the correct position now. As before, they are trying to get the swelling down. His condition is stable – they are keeping him heavily sedated and keeping his body temperature low so that he can recover better.

The good news is that Dunedin Hospital is the primary teaching hospital for New Zealand and he is receiving excellent care. The entire hospital staff is going out of their way for my brother and for my parents. He also has many friends there who have been spending a lot of their time at the hospital.

Cards can be sent to:
Karlton Bontrager
Intensive Care Unit, 5A
Dunedin Public Hospital
210 Great King St
Dunedin, New Zealand

Thanks again for all your prayers, calls, and messages of support.

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Some of you may have heard from me; others are hearing now for the first time. Sorry to contact you by email; as you can imagine it’s been pretty tough here.

Friday morning 7/5 my dad got a call from New Zealand. My brother had a bad snowboarding accident, sustained a major head trauma, and is in critical condition. Details follow below. My parents are in New Zealand now and my sister Alexa and I are waiting to see if we need to head out there as well.

Please send thoughts and prayers his way. I will forward the hospital address for cards when I have that information. Feel free to contact me at this email address or you can call me at my house.

Thanks for your support.

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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.

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