On January 27th, our fun-loving Sean was in a Longboarding accident while making a casual trip to the auto parts store near his home in Skagit. He suffered a fractured skull and severe traumatic brain injury. After an ambulance ride to Skagit Valley Hospital, he was flown to Harborview in Seattle. After about a month in a medically induced coma, surgeries to remove skull bones to reduce intracranial pressure from swelling and bleeding, severe pneumonia and ARDS, and a few other complications- he defied the odds and was able to wake up. Since then he has had the skull bones replaced and was weaned off the ventilator support.

He has a long road to recovery of months to years. He is currently having difficulty with word-finding, planning, short term memory and some balance and coordination, but he is making huge strides more quickly than anyone predicted! His voice is still coming back but is strong enough to have a conversation!

The reason I'm creating this is because MANY of you have asked who to send money to for help financially (thank you💚). Although Sean has good insurance, you could imagine his medical bills plus time out of work has added up. All donations will be used to cover his deductibles, long-term therapy or other medical expenses. 

Do not feel obligated to donate, as your positive vibes and emotional support mean more to us than you know. 

*Some very important things to consider before you do anything:*

Update/ current condition:

Please understand that although I will do my best to communicate very basic updates, Sean's privacy is of utmost importance. Though his communication is limited at this point, there are some details he has asked not be public knowledge. If you have heard anything from family members or loved ones, please do not spread those details. It's easy to misunderstand implications of various progress in brain injuries, and if it has not been posted here by myself or another immediate family member, it shouldn't be spread.

Updates will not be daily, since the current stages of healing are very slow (again, typical of brain injuries).

Visitation:

Obviously COVID is still running rampant, and with Sean being in critical condition for over 2 months now, we must take every precaution for his health and safety. This means that we have been isolating and masking between visits to the hospital, and will continue to do so after his discharge home next week. Please use all the extra hygiene precautions and mask if you make plans to say hi to any of us (and understand if we turn down plans to see you or miss parties and events).

Sean will likely be available in about 2-3 weeks to see friends and additional family members a couple at a time, and we will start with outdoor visits. Please reach out to myself or parents to see when a good time would be.

Communication: as you can imagine, despite the time since the incident, we are all overwhelmed. Positive messages are appreciated, but please understand our response time may be delayed.

Communication to Sean:

Please do not send Sean a bunch of messages just yet! As you can imagine, he has a lot of people who love him. Leaving a post or message on Facebook messenger is okay, just understand he is overwhelmed and may not respond.

One of the most detrimental after-effects of brain injury is with emotional health. Sean's frontal lobes were the most severely damaged. These lobes control emotional regulation, inhibition, planning, complex processing, and personality. We are very lucky that we have seen much of Sean's loving, funny personality returning, but its important we are careful with our words to support the most positive recovery we can for him emotionally.

*Please do not:*

-Ask him about the accident. 

-Tell him how worried or sad this has made anyone. He doesn't need to feel bad for making anyone else feel bad.

-Ask "do you remember.....?" This puts a lot of pressure and can instigate feelings of failure if he doesn't remember. We have seen short term memory issues so far and long term is patchy. 

- Please don't remind him "how bad this one was."

-Say things like "I can't wait until you can ___again" (we don't know if he will), "you better ____ when you get home" or "before the accident you liked ____". He might be very different, with different interests. We want him to feel supported in whatever that means. 

*Please do:*

-Tell him you are grateful for him and experiences you've had

-Share photos of your life, things you've done together, and how much you enjoyed them

-Share things that would bring him joy normally. He's got a lot of time resting to watch fun videos. 

I know this sounds excessive, but its based in a lot of TBI recovery neurolsychology. I know all your intentions are good, but sometimes we dont realize how things come off to a traumatized-healing mind. 

We love you all so much. Reach out to me individually if you have any questions. 

❤🧠-Sam