My husband, my son and I were in Colorado on our annual ski trip in February of this year. My husband's accident was a real nightmare. He was skiing on Mardi Gras day, February 12th, at Winter Park, Co. He fell; had his goggles on backwards (not using them) and we believe that the goggles actually caused the injury. He got back up since he had only fallen on the powder; skiied the remainder of the day; had dinner that night; sat in the hot tub and even had a couple of beers. He woke up early the next morning throwing up. Being the deteremined, "hard-headed" individual that he is, did not want to go to the doctor. Actually the fall was so minor that we did not feel that this was what was causing the problem. To make a long story short, I finally convinced him to go to the Emergency Clinic in Granby; and, of course, when they started taking his history (which I haven't mentioned yet - he was on the blood thinner Coumadin), they felt he needed to be transported to Denver for a Cat scan. I really felt that everything was going to be ok and that was a "wasted" trip - NOT - By the time they got him to Denver by ambulance, his condition had deteriorated to the extent that he was now in a coma and surgery had to be done immediately to remove a massive blood clot from his brain. The pressure was so severe that it caused a stroke in the right brain stem. This was probably the scariest night of my life. Here I was alone in Colorado (we live in Louisiana) with only my son and the doctors telling me that my husband probably would not make it through the surgery. He did make it through the surgery; stayed in SICU for a couple of days; moved on to PCU and then to a regular room. We had to charter an air-med plane to bring him home to Louisiana. He was transferred to a rehab facility back here in Baton Rouge, which was far too early since they did not have the proper facilities to care for him. They did not do another cat scan until a week after his air transfer and there was additional bleeding. So here we go again - back to another Intensive Care unit. From there he was moved to the Neuro floor of the hospital and is now in rehab.

At the time of the accident, he had no movement whatsoever on the left side of his body. But soon after the surgery, we started to notice slight movements - such as the index finger on his hand; then lifting the arm slightly; then toes on the left foot. He now can do things like take his glasses off with the left hand; hold a cup or glass in the left hand and is bending his left leg and raising it. He is at the point in therapy where he can stand with assistance but definitely not alone. BTW, did I mention that he is a very determined, independent, "hard headed" person - We are now at the point where they cannot keep him in a bed. He is convinced he can get up alone. He is now in a "vail tent" bed to keep him from getting out alone. He did just that twice last Thursday and ended up on the floor both times.

They are telling me his short term memory is now at about 50%; his long term seems to be pretty much there. His speech was very affected after the surgery but that has improved greatly. He still has his sense of humor, which is great. He is very emotional and will go from laughing to crying in the same sentence.

I would appreciate hearing from any of you who can give me support, advice, incidents of similar things that have happened to any of you or your patient.

I feel like we have a long, long road ahead of us but the doctors feel his prognosis is good. Of course, they just can't predict how far he might go in the end.