Hi to all, we are parents of a young man (25yrs) by the name of Denton. We all (us and Dentons 6 siblings) live in Cold Lake AB Canada. It was the 16th of May 07 when the phone rang, I was out on the deck sanding some wood when Bonnie burst from the house saying that we had to go, that Denton has had an accident with his bike.... uh motorcycle. We had been dreading this call, but had a feeling it was going to come at sometime, just not so soon.

Denton had just purchased the bike last fall, but did not take possession of it until the spring of this year.

I asked Bonnie who had called, she told me it was Lori (Dentons sister) and that she sounded very worried, this upset Bonnie very much because Lori is the calm and collected one in the family. We beat the ambulance to the hospital, and it just seemed to take forever for it to arrive, in the mean time all of the family and some friends had arrived and we waited, not knowing what to expect,and just how bad it was, and bad it was.

I expecteed maybe a few broken bones, some road rash... oh if only. He finally arrived at the local hospital,only to be wisked away straight into emerg. The on call doctor was right there waiting and did a preliminary exam which seemed to take forever. After awhile he finally took us to a seperate room and informed us of some of his injuries and that (I didnt get this when he was telling us) Denton might not make it through to Edmonton during his airvac, in fact they had asked if one of us would like to accompany Denton on the aircraft. Wasn't until much later did I realize what the doctor was saying.

Bonnie and I arrived in Edmonton at around 4 in the morning, (Edmonton is a 3 hr drive from Cold Lake) he was airvac'd to the University of Alberta Hospital (UAH) and when we arrived he was still with us, but in very critical condition.

The list of Dentons injuries included a broken femer (right) 3 broken ribs on right side and one on left side, fractured sternum, right lung collasped, partical collasped lung on left side, bleeding around the right lung, lasurated liver, and bruised heart, and of course two brain contustions on the front part of his brain with bleeding on the brain.

Some of the positives were that he did not sustian any back or neck injuries and his skull was intact, but the doctors took care of that about a week later with a cranalectomy, removed his forehead because his swelling had gotten out of control.

Denton remained in ICU for 28 dys battling for his life,and just when we thought he was over the worst, something else would pop up. I wont get into any of those, I've made this long enough as it is. Suffice it to say the Denton is still with us, his body has healed, though he stil has some issues that are annoying us, but he is on his way to recovery, unfortunately we do not yet know the extent of his BI as he is in what the call VS or as one doctor explained; a state of Brain Injury.

He has sleep periods and has awake periods, he is begining to track movements,and we believe that he recognizes us, but again we cannot be 100% sure, he has squeezed our hands when asked to and has movement in all limbs when stimulated. The one thing that gives us hope is that even though Dentons lungs took such abuse, he never stopped breathing, and his heart just kept on ticking.

I never ever thought that I would have to learn so much about all of this TBI stuff (that's the best I can come up with) and I am glad I have found this site so that I can better understand what Denton may face in his future. I thank u for taking the time to read this and Bonnie and I will be in one of the chat rooms under the name "notned" (thats Denton spelled backwards, a family nickname for Denton).

I dont want to take too much more of your time, but I thought it important that I tell u who Denton was and hopefully will be again.

Denton is a very good looking kid, now I dont say this because Im his father, but he has always had a way about him that attracts people too him, a smile for everyone, generious in not only his good nature but in the things that he takes pride in.

His favorite activities include soccer, he can juggle (6 balls at a time, was working on 7) video games, chat rooms on the inernet, reading ect ect....

High school graduate, turned down the valivictorian for his school, decided that workin on the rigs was a career that appealed to him (make lots of money) and was well on his way to opperating his own crew, good hard worker, showed up for every shift and did what was asked and more.

He owns his own home, has three.... two vechicles, in other words very responsible.

His biggest flaw and it finally got him, was speed, just was too addictive to it.

Denton, we await your smile and laughter once again, and we pray that we shall see it soon, my son.

PS I have used one of my childrens e-mail address, as Bonnie and I dont have one set up, and as we need one to submit this story and I certainly do not want to rewrite this. So if u send us a e-mail, it might not get answered right away as all of my children are in Cold lake and Bonnie and I remain in Edmonton by Dentons side.

Email Dennis and Bonnie