My other injuries were many, but several screamed for precedence. Cue triage.
In conjunction with my bronchial tear, both of my lungs had been punctured. This necessitated the surgical implantation of an array of chest tubes for both re-inflation and stabilization and a tracheostomy to facilitate the continuous usage of a respirator. (According to my family, the respirator was a major irritant, and, when conscious, I would constantly pull it off of my trach in frustration.) The crash had literally flailed my chest, resulting in a ribcage riddled with breaks and fractures and forming a clear basis for my extensive respiratory damage.
The closed-head trauma I sustained during the crash became another issue of immediate importance. I had major swelling of the brain, but because I hadn't actually split my head open, it was swelling into a dangerously finite amount of space. This injury was my greatest initial hurdle beyond surviving the crash itself. Until the swelling could be checked, the risk of permanent brain damage rose alarmingly, and an advanced brain monitoring utility called a LICOX machine was "installed" into the top of my head to monitor my intracranial pressure (ICP) and act as a "brain catheter" to help siphon off excess fluids and relieve pressure.
Although my ICP was eventually brought within safe limits, the traumatic brain injury that I had sustained coupled with my narcotics regimen and an inability to verbally express myself due to the trach's aspiration-preventing, speech-impeding "balloon" would cause my true mental state to remain in doubt until much later.
In conjunction with my bronchial tear, both of my lungs had been punctured. This necessitated the surgical implantation of an array of chest tubes for both re-inflation and stabilization and a tracheostomy to facilitate the continuous usage of a respirator. (According to my family, the respirator was a major irritant, and, when conscious, I would constantly pull it off of my trach in frustration.) The crash had literally flailed my chest, resulting in a ribcage riddled with breaks and fractures and forming a clear basis for my extensive respiratory damage.
The closed-head trauma I sustained during the crash became another issue of immediate importance. I had major swelling of the brain, but because I hadn't actually split my head open, it was swelling into a dangerously finite amount of space. This injury was my greatest initial hurdle beyond surviving the crash itself. Until the swelling could be checked, the risk of permanent brain damage rose alarmingly, and an advanced brain monitoring utility called a LICOX machine was "installed" into the top of my head to monitor my intracranial pressure (ICP) and act as a "brain catheter" to help siphon off excess fluids and relieve pressure.
Although my ICP was eventually brought within safe limits, the traumatic brain injury that I had sustained coupled with my narcotics regimen and an inability to verbally express myself due to the trach's aspiration-preventing, speech-impeding "balloon" would cause my true mental state to remain in doubt until much later.
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