John Continues to Correct Himself (by John)

Well, there's nothing like talking to people who were there to set you straight on what happened at a traffic accident.

While I was a Great Vespers tonight, the first two responders to Joan's accident, the aforementioned Kim, and another EMT named John, stopped by to talk to Joan, and see how she was doing. From them, Joan got the straight story on what happened.

First (and hopefully once for all!), Joan was hit by a car coming from the north, not coming from the south. The car actually T-boned her on the passenger side right over the back, sliding door on the mini-van. The car that hit Joan had a low, strange bumper, so its bumper actually went under the mini-van and flipped the mini-van in the air. The mini-van landed on its driver's side on top of the truck that was sitting at the intersection waiting to go eastbound. (The driver thought that the mini-van was coming into the cab). The truck was pushed back twenty feet by the impact, and the mini-van bounced off the truck hood and landed twenty feet away from the second impact, on its driver's side.

Witnesses calling 911 noted that Joan wasn't breathing. And when John and Kim got there, they found that was correct. They estimate that Joan had not been breathing for 4-5 minutes, which they took from the time given by witness accounts. (For the medically inclined reading this Email, Joan was blue and in the decorticate position). Kim and John scrambled hard to get Joan's neck back into place to let her breathe. They finally did so, but it was difficult. (Again for the medically inclined, they tried to insert a nasal trumpet, without success). John and Kim managed to stabilize Joan and get her breathing, but what amazed them was that after being without oxygen for so long, Joan woke up while she was being transported to the helicopter, and was actually fairly coherent during transport, and on the helicopter to the hospital.

It turns out that Kim and John were so amazed by Joan's quick recovery that they texted each other all night talking about it. And, quite frankly, it is amazing. People without oxygen for that long are not supposed to live. And if they do live, they should be in a vegetative state. So I have a lot to be thankful for. Joan is alive, and she is quite functional mentally. She has no also decided that is OK to cut herself some slack, since her mental function is not exactly what it was pre-accident. She has also decided that after such a length of time without oxygen, it might take her awhile for all her mental processes to get back up to snuff.

And, of course, what I can say, "Thanks be to God!" for her survival. This really does seem to qualify as a miracle, so I am thankful that God exercised His infinite power to keep Joan alive, and her brain intact in the face of the oxygen loss.

That's it for tonight (that's probably enough!). I will Email you again tomorrow.

Thanks for all the Emails, prayers, thoughts, and cards.

John.