Day 03 — Wednesday, June 19, 2024

9:00 AM #

West Chester Hospital. The attending doctors Froula, Sohail and Sarosh reduced sedation to see if Shane would regain consciousness. They said it caused his ICP, intracranial pressure, to spike. It increased to 30. Tiffany the RN was very attentive. She saw the spike and went and stood beside the doctors and signaled to the vital sign monitors. They asked for consent to do a central line for an IV into his chest to allow stronger medications to be delivered to reduce the ICP. I asked if it was the same procedure that I had signed for when we arrived, the port in the neck. Doctor Froula said no, fortunately that wasn’t done and it was an advantage because Shane’s head needed to be turned to the right to keep pressure off the area where the skull was removed. A port in the neck would have interfered with that.

Shane’s appearance changed significantly, in a graphic and unsettling way. That day, the swelling reached its maximum. The entire left side of his head protruded several centimeters beyond the natural curve of his skull. The overlying scalp was bright red, tightly stretched, and pulsed visibly from intracranial pressure. Removing a portion of the skull to give the brain room to swell was the right decision, but seeing it was disturbing. The infirmary nurse, Andrew Harkess and I took turns sitting with him. We waited for the medications to reduce the ICP.

12:00 PM #

The ICP decreased and hovered around 20. Other test results for heart attack, stroke, blood clot, aneurysm and arterial blockages came back negative. The root cause of his collapse was unclear. The doctors kept sedation on all day because the reduction caused the ICP to go up. But over the next few days, the goal was to stop sedation completely so he could regularly be assessed using the GCS score, Glasgow Coma Scale. On that scale, you and I are a 15. Shane was at a 3, the lowest score of consciousness possible. Both eyes reacted to light. Hemoglobin 8.7. I let our families know the progress. Betty said she wished she could be here but didnt have anyone who could care for Bill.

6:00 PM #

Nurse shift change. I went back to the waiting area. Many people had arrived to visit. There were also many other families of other patients. There were no seats left. That drew the attention of the security guard. He said only two family members could be in the waiting area. He sent the rest of our group down to the main entrance lobby where there is no limit to group size. From that evening on, the brothers arranged that an evening group from Bethel and the congregation could come at 6:00pm, but they would stay in the main lobby and I would meet them there. Since I wasn’t allowed to be with Shane during the nurse shift change, it did help to get away that hour from the tension of the ICU.