Thursday 28th August 2014

There hasn’t been a huge amount of change in Gerard’s condition since I emailed on Tuesday. Sue, Max, Zac & Pete (Gerard’s cousin-in-law) met with David, the ICU Trauma Doctor yesterday but he wasn’t able to offer anything new except that Gerard also has a broken rib and small fractures in a couple of other vertebrae which are minor (we guess) in comparison to the first three. The spinal cord damage at the base of his skull remains the big problem. A spinal specialist from the Austin will visit tomorrow to examine/assess Gerard and then there will be a meeting as to what their options are. Gerard has been filled in on everything and (unfortunately) knows what’s going on. He was on the wait list to have the dressing on his leg changed yesterday but I believe it was held over until first thing this morning. So apart from cleaning up the wound under anaesthetic and continuing with physio and monitoring, etc, today was to be a “nothing” day. The boys were ok yesterday. They are talking about it all and Pete found some brochures on handling trauma in the family – one sheet on teenagers. So that was to be Sue’s bedtime reading last night. Gerard’s family are spending time in with Gerard and Sue’s sister and brother-in-law are driving Sue and the boys to and from the hospital. That’s all I have for the time being. As Sue sends info I will be certain to pass it on. She knows that they are well and truly in our thoughts.