Josh had a Serious Accident but so far he is doing well…
On August 5, 2008, Josh went Rappelling in Portersville, PA and fell 50′ straight down, landing hard and bouncing up on his feet. The impact was on his left leg. He has a serious lower leg injury (a compound fracture of the tibia) and the Orthopaedic surgeon told us that he will be in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Hospital for 3 weeks minimum and possibly as many as six weeks. He will have to have a bone graft, skin graft and agressive treatment to prevent infection. The doctor believes that he has a very good chance of keeping his leg. He also told us that had he not been brought here to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, his chances of keeping his limb would not be so good. At this time I am waiting for Josh to awaken from surgery. He had to have one bone removed and a rod placed down the length of his tibia. The Doctor told us that Josh has the healthiest legs he has ever seen and that will be a major plus for his recovery. Mike and Joe will arrive here in Pittsburgh in a few hours. Jay is with me now. Joanna and Jessica are arriving at this moment with Mrs. Burnett.
James Burnett performed first aid, applied a tourniquet by tying his shirt around his lower leg. He kept Josh calm, went to call 911 and assisted in getting Josh out. They waited for over a half hour for help to arrive. It took 45 minutes for the rescuers to get to him. James helped hold the I.V. bag for them and kept holding him up. James helped them get Josh into the basket to carry him out. The helicopter that lifted him out landed in a field nearby.
Here are some of the pictures that Josh’s youth pastor and friend, James Burnett, gave me.
Recovery room, after surgery
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Today Dr. Tarkin, Josua’s Orthopaedic surgeon, told us that Joshua is doing well and that tomorrow he will undergo his first irrigation and debridement operation following the bone setting and rod placement yesterday.
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Wednesday, August 6, 2008
To recap:
Joshua suffered a compound fracture of his left tibia. Orthopaedic surgeons placed a metal rod through the tibia bone and cleaned and re-attached the skin that had de-gloved around his ankle. He will have to have several follow up irrigation and debridement procedures in order to prevent deep bone infection (osteomyelitis)
He will have to have some sort of muscle flap to repair lost muscle and tissue, and a bone graft to replace a large part of bone that could not be repaired. The muscle flap will be grafted from another place on his body.
His treatments and recovery will take a considerable amount of time. He will have to remain in Pittsburgh for a very minimum of three weeks, and could be six weeks or longer depending on how fast his body repairs the damage and the absence of any infection.
At the time of this writing, he has been in the hospital for close to 24 hours and is taking strong pain medication and two different antibiotics intraveniously. He is resting well and remains in good spirits. He jokes with everyone even though he is obviously in pain. Josh is one of the finest people I have ever known, even if he is my own son.
Your prayers are much appreciated for his rapid and complete healing and recovery.
–Sheri
Thursday, August 7, 2008
This morning Dr. Tarkin told me that during the irrigation and debridement procedure, done early this morning, he found very little muscle and tissue damage. He was very pleased with what he saw. He said that our main goal now is to combat any infection that could potentially occur. Monday he will have the procedure repeated. After that, and if all is still well, they can proceed to the next phase which is closing the wounds. Josh actually has two major open wounds on his left lower leg. The higher one is the lesser of the two. This is where the bone came through. The lower gash is where he lost most of the tissue and that will need grafting. They will still have to work on the higher wound, but it is not as complex. The shin bone doesn’t have much tissue in front of it naturally so this is where the grafting will be necessary.
This afternoon the Plastic Surgeon and all the interns came in to talk about Joshua’s next step in treatment. The plastic surgeons said that they may do a dye test to map his vascular system and show which areas on the left leg can be used for grafting.
Josh is now taking his pain medicine in pill form, not through the I.V. He is needing it less and less. He is still in good spirits and very appreciative of the outpouring of love and care from his family and friends. He definitely feels the love!
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Friday, August 8, 2008
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Today Josh was taken for an angiogram that will provide a picture of his vascular system for the plastic surgeons who will be closing the two open wounds in his lower left leg. They explained to me that they had to do this in order to see where they could take healthy tissue to graft to the lower open wound on the shin.
Hospital Slumber Party!
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Saturday, August 9, 2008
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Josh continues to grow stronger and stay awake longer. He had a total of 38 visitors today! Thank you all for showing such love and care even though you are all about three hours drive away from this hospital! It is amazing to see such an outpouring of love!The church youth group all stopped in to see him, as did football friends and their families, High school friends, and our huge wonderful family. Josh has always shown great compassion for others and shares all of what he has. Now it is returning to him.
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Originally uploaded by search for balance
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Sunday night Josh received two units of blood in order to raise his hemoglobin / hematocrit level for surgery on Tuesday.
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Monday, August 11, 2008
Monday morning Josh had another irrigation and debridement procedure. The doctors did not come talk to me so I am assuming that everything went well and looks good. If it were not they would surely have come to tell us. Josh had a big increase in pain on Monday night and the staff physician who was ‘on-call’ had to look at his dressings to make sure everything was draining correctly. He said all looked OK. The nurses gave him more pain medication and re-arranged his leg. Late at night the Doctors and O.R. staff decided to postpone his skin graft and muscle flap surgery until Wednesday.
Interesting definitions for this injury
Mike, Jay and Joe arrived late Monday night to be here for Josh’s surgery on Tuesday. The nurses warned Josh Monday morning that they often cancel scheduled surgeries and reschedule. She said this hospital is notorious for this. It sure does make it difficult for family members who have to arrange time off from their jobs to be with their loved ones for their surgeries.
🙁 The meals in the hospital cafeteria run around $7.00 each. This is just getting a main dish, vegetable and potatoe with a beverage. I may have to find another way to eat for the rest of my stay here.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (a few of the buildings)
Originally uploaded by search for balance
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Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Josh went to surgery at 7:00am and returned to his room at 3:00pm. The doctors did not come talk to us. The nurse told us that he had a rotational muscle flap rather than a free flap. They inserted an epidural for pain management with a PCA unit for him to dispense medication as needed.
From what I understand from talking to the Dr. from plastic surgery, they used two muscles, the soleus muscle, and the gastrocnemius muscle by moving them over to cover the tibia bone. They said that it is not always possible to perform this type of muscle flap due to injury to the blood vessels. He did not lose a lot of tissue and he has a good healthy blood supply so the surgery went well. The doctor said that they took some of the skin from his upper left leg to graft over the open wounds. He has a bio-degradable covering on the site where they harvested his healthy skin. They said that it will take about five days of careful monitoring before they will know if the graft is taking.
Josh has been sleeping all day following the surgery. he had an epidural inserted where anesthetic drugs are delivered to his lower extermities. Unfortunately, the tube shifted and he is getting more numbing on his good right side than he is on his injured left side.
I hope tomorrow he is feeling more himself and back to making baskets with his little tape balls and mini sports balls. 🙂 Stay tuned!
Thursday, August 13, 2008
This morning the dilauded in Josh’s epidural infusion PCA pump ran out and he was suffering some serious pain. The alarm kept going off on the pump and the nurses were trying their best to get more from the pharmacy. The pharmacy was very slow to respond. Finally, after Josh’s repeated requests for pain relief, one nurse called down and told them angrily to get that freakin’ dilaudid up here right NOW! That produced fast results and the meds finally arrived. They called the doctor and asked for permission to give him a shot of dilaudid in his I.V. to give some immediate relief until the pump started sending steady medication again. He approved it and they quickly administered it. Josh is able to control the dilaudid in his epidural with a PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesics) unit. He hit the button about 4 times before drifting into a much welcomed drug induced sleep.
Josh said the pain in his calf is pretty terrible. He said it feels like it is laying on two rocks rather than the two pillows that it is resting on. I hope this stage of recovery doesn’t last long. I’m hoping soon he will be back to tossing balls in his make-shift basketball hoop again.
Here is some relevant information about Josh’s injury that I found online:
Friday, August 14, 2008
Sara arrived late night and is here through the weekend. Today is Jay and Sara’s first anniversary! Happy anniversary Jay and Sara! 🙂
Josh is doing much better today. he is playing hospital B-Ball again! Yes! His youth pastor and friends came to visit around noon. They are out looking for an RF Modulator to see if they can install an X-Box here for him.
I have a very graphic picture of Josh’s leg if you are up to it. If you are squeamish don’t click the link. It’s not really bad, but some may be sensitive. Consider yourself warned. 😉
LINK: Joshua’s leg healing progression after plastic surgery.
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Friends from Josh’s church brought an X-Box 360 out for Josh to play. Jay, Joe and Andy P. found a tv on a cart in a closet here at the hospital and asked a nurse if they could use it. The nurse said if they could move it they could take it. The guys even went to a nearby Game Stop store and bought an RF Modulator switch. They ROCK!
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Saturday, August 16, 2008
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Last Day At Presby Hospital
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The Long Ride Home
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Chillin’ at home at Jay and Saras’ house
Jay and Sara fixed up Josh’s room with his plaques.
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JUST HOW MUCH DID JOSH’S HOSPITALIZATION COST? CHECK THIS OUT! (click for larger view – then if your browser shrinks it click again to see full size)
Josh had a bone graft on November 5th. Dr. Tarkin took bone from Joshua’s hip and grafted it to his tibia. Josh was missing about two inches of bone on the back of his left tibia. Josh says that the most painful part of the procedure is his hip. There is bruising around the harvest site and a large incision. I found the following picture at
This Website
