Mr. V's Journey To Recovery

Thursday, November 14th:
At 10:30 am my mother called me to tell me that my dad was in a terrible car accident and that the jaws of life had to be used and he had to be life flighted to Memorial Hermann Hospital Downtown. This is one of the Trauma 1 centers in Houston and the best. My mom told me a witness had called to tell her that she saw the accident that occured and my dad was fine. He was alert and responsive and told the witness my mom's name and where she worked. They were able to locate my mom and luckily she was in her office at that time. The witness said my dad was okay but in a lot of pain and the helicopter had just arrived. The paramedics then called my mom afterwards and told her the same thing as the witness. My mom then called me.
I was at work trying not have a mental breakdown, it was very hard not to cry. My mom was going to pick me up at work and we were going to meet up with my dad at the emergency center at the hospital. At this point we had no idea how bad my father was. We arrived at the hospital and was told first to settle with the business office for insurance purposes, of course. Its almost like the receptionist said "Hey your dad has been in a horrible accident and badly injured but can you pay first before you see him thanks GO USA HEALTH SYSTEM!"
So my mom settled that business and then we were told to wait in the Dr. James "Red" Duke waiting area for Life Flights. (Dr. Red Duke used to have a spot on Channel 3 News in Corpus Christi ah memories from my childhood) Well we waited and waited and waited and waited and waited. Finally mom went back to the receptionist and she was surprised a doctor hadn't spoken to us yet. She let us know they had moved him to Shock and Trauma Intensive Care Unit (STICU). We arrived there and was told they had just received the order to place my dad in bed #22 but he was still in Interventional Radiology. They would let us know when he was in his bed and usually would take 45 minutes to settle him down and hook him up. A little information background here, we arrived at the hospital at 11:30 am and it was already 1:00 pm by the time we got this information. So we waited and waited. Jonathan came around 1:30 and the three of us just waited. My mom's good friends from work came by to be supportive and brought lots of people magazine's (thanks Brandi and Nicole!). Then we went and asked again and again and again.
Finally at 8:30 pm Dr. Hamilton told us our dad's prognosis. My dad has a shattered spleen, fractured liver, shattered pelvis, broken ribs, cracked lower spine (no spinal cord damage), and injured aorta. He was intubated and thanks to my addiction to Grey's Anatomy, I knew what he meant. Basically my dad had to have a tube shoved down his throat and was hooked up to a breathing machine to help him breath to make sure his ribs, since they were broken, did not puncture or bruise his lungs. He told us my dad was heavily sedated so he wont feel the pain and that basically he would be in the hospital a long long time. My dad tested negative for head trauma so that was great news. Also Dr. Hamilton told us that they were going to monitor my dad for the next 24-48 hours to make sure he keeps stabilized and that this was a crucial time. I am not going to lie I was very upset it took so long to find out about my dad but my mom said something that helped. She said, "Delena, I think that because the doctors', tending to your dad, number one concern was to save his life and stabilize him and that we were secondary. In the big picture it was very important to save his life rather then tell us what was going on right away"