November 4, 2008

Day 1

All things considered, maybe the whole car-surfing idea didn't work out as planned. Once the EMT's from Sumner County arrived (about 4:15 PM), it was a fairly quick decision to life flight Dennis to Vanderbilt Trauma Unit (Though this wasn't public knowledge for a couple of days, due to a need to know decision by the family {well part of it}). Dennis arrived at about 6:00 PM at Vandy, but was admitted under the pseudonym "Penguin 08", since no family member over 18 was with him. Shortly thereafter, Dad arrived at Vandy, and once the code was cracked (if only he'd worn his Batman cape!) located Dennis and began THE VIGIL. The onset of a brain injury is an event marked by evaluation, scanning, waiting and fear, in approximately that order. Dennis was prepped for a CAT scan to determine the extent of the brain insult and the amount of initial bleeding in the brain. Then he was tested to determine his ability to respond to commands and evaluate his awareness. And then there followed 12 hours of monitoring/re-evaluating and waiting for the next CAT scan, scheduled for 6 AM on Wednesday the 5th. During the night the nurses continued the evaluations and were guardedly optimistic about Dennis' responsiveness.
And so the long first night of waiting began