Posted on January 24, 2012 · Posted in TBI Voices
This entry is part 2 of 32 in the series Kelly

Medflighted for Brain Surgery

Our story of Kelly’s severe brain injury from a horse bridling accident continues and how she was medflighted for brain surgery to Brackenridge Trauma Center in Austin :

What Determined Kelly Being Medflighted for Brain Surgery

What happened to you after you got hurt?

The ranch owner – well like I mentioned earlier, it was Princess Diana’s funeral, and every TV station was covering that funeral.  So the ranch where I was living on they also leased it for deer hunts and things of that nature.  The ranch owner came up from Houston because he was tired of watching all the funeral stuff on TV, to check the deer stands to make sure they were ready for the fall hunts and things  and he saw my body lying out in the horse arena.

I was in the mode of aspiration, which he thought I was sleeping out there and snoring and, but, I had a really bloody head, a big swollen head, and so he knew that I wasn’t sleeping even though I was aspirating.  He ran up to the neighbors and she was a nurse so he got her to come down and she told him to call 911, which he did.

From there I was transported to the hospital where they couldn’t help me, then I was airlifted (medflighted for brain surgery) to Brackenridge Trauma Center in Austin, Texas, where I was put in intensive care and apparently had, I had all types of different life support pieces of equipment attached to my body.

Have you ever reviewed your medical records?

Yes, I have.

From what’s in your medical records, tell us what actually happened to you that you were medflighted for brain surgery.

Well what actually happened to me was when they realized at the Lee County Hospital they could not, they didn’t have the equipment or the skills to accommodate a severe brain injury. So they had me airlifted to Brackenridge Trauma Center in Austin where they did diagnose me as – I’m thinking of the word, I have a moment of aphasia.

Is it a subdural hematoma?

Yes, they diagnosed me with subdural hematoma and severe closed head injury, and that required them to go in and remove the hematoma.

They did brain surgery?

Yes, basically. They did a craniotomy.

Did they take out a, a large portion of your skull to do it?

No. As far as I’m aware, they drilled a hole.

Then they just drained the subdural?

I believe so, of course I wasn’t there so I don’t know.  I wasn’t there mentally, just physically.

Next in Part Three – First Memories In Response to Nurse Prodding

By Attorney Gordon Johnson

800-992-9447

About the Author

Attorney Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Past Chair Traumatic Brain Injury Litigation Group, American Association of Justice
g@gordonjohnson.com :: 800-992-9447