Billy's Accident

On Wednesday December 16th George's oldest brother, Billy, was in a head-on collision. It happened in a small town called Burlington which is on the Colorado/Kansas border. He normally lives in Omaha, Nebraska, but had been working in Colorado. We don't know all the details of the accident, but from what we've been told he wasn't wearing his seat belt and was ejected from the truck. The truck rolled and he was pinned underneath it. After they got him out he was life flighted to Denver's St. Anthony Central, which is a Trauma 1 hospital. He was in a coma for a couple days before they finally got him stable. After that they kept him in a medical coma to begin the surgeries. He had a punctured lung, dislocated knee, several broken bones including his leg (femur), arms (both humerus bones, and one ulna), flail chest right side ribs 2 through 8, and broken vertebrae (fractured C1 & C2, and T10 through L2). We feel very blessed that Bill is with us at all considering all these injuries. And although it's only been a couple weeks since the accident, Billy has been progressing wonderfully. He is no longer on a ventilator and they just moved him out of the ICU a couple days ago, plus he just got his chest tube removed yesterday! They've now brought him out of his medically-induced coma and despite the pain meds he's becoming more and more alert and aware of his surroundings. Thankfully the cat scan shows no brain damage, and George even got to talk to him on the phone. If you'd like to follow his progress we created a blog: http://mrbillbates.blogspot.com He has a long road of recovery ahead of him, but he's a tough guy and we know he'll be up for the task!

Go Billy! We're all rooting for you in your recovery.

We are keeping Billy and his family in our thoughts and prayers and are very thankful for the great progress he's made so far.