Sunday 24th August 2014

Not being certain as to what you have all heard thus far about Gerard, Sue has asked me to start at the beginning and dismiss any other versions which may be circulating about what happened and what is happening at the moment. On Sunday morning at around 10.10, Gerard was descending from his ladder which was situated on their back verandah. He made it to the bottom rung when he slipped, fell backwards towards the railing and according to Sue who was standing next to the table at the time just continued toppling over the edge. It is approximately a 4 metre drop to the ground. When Sue reached Gerard she realised that he wasn’t breathing and screamed out to Max to call 000. Their neighbours heard her calling to Max and raced in. Luckily these wonderful neighbours had just completed their resuscitation course and worked on Gerard for 25 minutes until the CFA, SES, Police and Paramedics arrived. Due to the area in which he fell it took a considerable amount of time to stabilise him and carry him up to the ambulance, by which time many of you would have realised the air ambulance hovering in North Warrandyte before landing on the Warrandyte football ground. A period of just over 2 hours lapsed from the time Gerard fell to the moment the helicopter took off but in only 10 minutes they were landing at The Alfred hospital in Prahran. After stabilising Gerard in emergency he was put through the most advanced MRI in Victoria and it was discovered that he had 3 fractured vertebrae and spinal cord damage. It is believed that he fell face first and his head was probably jerked backwards, hence the fractures. He was also unable to breathe on his own so was placed on a ventilator and eventually into ICU. When Sue and the boys left on Sunday night he knew they were there but was unable to communicate as he couldn’t speak because of the ventilator and had no movement from the neck down. Monday 25th August 2014 After a relatively sleepless night Sue, Max and Zac headed into the hospital to be with Gerard. Sue said he was heavily sedated and doctors weren’t going to do anything or make decisions that day or until the swelling subsided. However what his family hadn’t realised on Sunday was that when Gerard fell he landed on a heap of bamboo beneath the verandah and 1 piece had pierced his thigh missing the bone and his femoral artery!!! They operated on him yesterday to remove the bamboo and will operate again tomorrow to change the dressing. He will eventually need a skin graft on that area but really, in the scheme of things, that is the least of their problems. They decided not stay in the hospital too long today as other family members are there and are keeping them abreast of any developments. Gerard is still heavily sedated. Approx 7.30 tonight Sue text me to say that Gerard’s brother had called her and that Gerard had been breathing on his own for a few hours with the ventilator aiding him a little, just in case. The nutrition is also now being absorbed by the stomach only as of this afternoon. His lungs, having been drained of fluid earlier today, are now free of infection. Little miracle by little miracle. Moving forward Sue and the boys will visit each day of course. The boys won’t be at school this week and are wanting to stay as close to Sue as they can, quite understandably. Whilst Sue is extremely grateful for the many text messages she has received, she is really not up to speaking with many at the moment and has asked if you could contact me or wait for updates from me as I receive them. Call, text or email if you wish but I will provide regular updates as information is received. If there are others I haven’t included in this email, please send me their email address and I’ll put them on the list. Send loads of good thoughts the Stevenson family’s way.