Kevin Crank is my nephew, although we grew up as brother and sister. He was the baby in our house. Kevin stayed close to his older brother Tig, and my brother Joey. They have always been the three amigos... They road bikes together, qualified in races together, and every year my dad would rent them a tractor so "the boys" could re-do there 1/2 acer bmx track, Kevin of course, the youngest, always got to dig the biggest holes for his older brothers- but he loved it! I the big sister, was always making sure everyone was nice to Kev, watching out for him, and look out if they weren't! In return Kevin would give me fashion advise which usually consisted of, "hey Kev does this look alright" he'd reply "it' looks fine" or "No that does not". Kevin has always been calm, laid back, easy to talk to, generous, kind, trusting, strong and very loving.
Imagine the shock we all had when we found out that Kevin (now 18) had been in a car accident.
On Oct 17th at about 4 am my parents received a knock on the door, Kevin had been rushed to the hospital in critical condition. Days later we found out that Kevin had broken his back, hip, pelvic bone and some ribs. He received severe head trauma and on top of all that he sliced his lung, spleen and liver.
Three weeks later and still no real sign of brain activity Kevin's Doctor said he was cautiously optimistic and with that they moved him into a nursing home. Three days in to his stay at the nursing home Kevin was rushed back to ICU for respiratory failure. Kevin had been fed laying down. His feeding tube had backed up. The nurses not knowing what they had done realized that Kevin's breathing had slowed down and felt that they should hook his trac back up, but it was the wrong trac. Back in ICU the Doctors stabilized him and told us that Kevin had aspiration pneumonia, his immune system had crashed. He quickly got very sick and had to be quarantined. Kevin's doctor declared him to be in a vegetative state and let us know that it was unlikely for a successful recovery. He also wanted to know how we would want to deal with the next incident that would inevitably occur do to the condition he was in... Or in other words would we want to bring him back if he tried to leave us again.
Feeling hopeless and helpless I took to the computer for answer, tirelessly searching I ran across Curt Allan, a 17 year old boy that had successfully been treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. His story was parallel to Kevin's. Suddenly I felt Hope!
I was inspired, and compelled to call and find out information on this treatment. In doing so I found my self talking to Juliet, wife to one of the leading doctors in the HBOT field. She said with great regard that Kevin did have a chance, and to get him in right away!!!
Four days ago Kevin's pneumonia started lifting and he had a break through. He tracked for the very first time. (To track means means to follow voices or stare purposefully) This is the first step to recovery. A step the doctors didn't think he'd get to. They wrote in his chart that Kevin had been misdiagnosed.
It's important now that we start helping Kevin in his recovery process, this include rehabilitation and HBOT. His insurance covers some of his rehabilitation but not any Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, although they do recommend it.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is an amazing treatment. It is accepted and used all over the world but unfortunately not in the United Sates (yet). For more information on HBOT please check out our links www.harchhyperbarics.com
Also Please check out the You Tube video of Curt Allan's recovery. On the search line type in Curt Allan HBOT
www.hbotofaz.org
