[Darkwood-SCA] Mistress Anastasia/Susan McKay in car accident

[MICHAEL MCKAY]

I'm just taking a quick break to let our SCA friends know about this.  I'm afraid I won't have time to answer lots of emails, but please contact Sabrina Goldbender (stephaniefey at yahoo.com) if you would like to be added to the status email list.
 
Susan McKay is Mistress Anastasia Ivanonva, and Aaron is our son.
 
Seaan McAy (aka Michael McKay) 
Caer Darth; Darkwood; Mists; West
 
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I sending out an email to let you know about Susan's accident.  I left Stanford Hospital tonight feeling much more optimistic.  Several life-threatening conditions have been overcome, and Susan is stable at the moment.  There are still a lot of obstacles and potential pitfalls left, but I'll deal with these as they occur.  I'm extremely happy to say that Aaron and Julian were released from the hospital with bruises and minor injuries.
 

Here is a brief background, with what I know of the accident.  If anybody has any new information or updates, I'd be very interested in knowing.  Susan was driving with Aaron and his classmate Julian Felice (spelling?) on a fieldtrip to the Deanza planetarium. She was part of a convoy of cars, all traveling below the speed limit at a safe distance apart.  For some reason the Oddesy went into a spin - probably due to hydroplaning.  The car went up (down?) an embankment and hit a tree on the driver's side.  I'm told the tree intruded into the driver's compartment by 11".  Everyone was wearing seatbelts, and the airbags did deploy (including, presumably, the side-airbag).

Susan was pinned in the car, and was still conscious.  The rest of the convoy stopped, and I'm told Susan Armstrong (who is a nurse) helped until the paramedics got there.  Aaron and Julian were put on back-boards and transported in a separate ambulance (where they were X-rayed and eventually released).  I believe under normal circumstances Susan would have been flown to Stanford directly, but weather had shut-down the helicopter service.  She was transported to Dominican hospital and apparently her condition deteriorated along the way.  There was an excellent team of doctors at Dominican, but they did not have enough of the right equipment.  They managed to prepare her for the trip and she was transported by helicopter to Stanford (after the weather had cleared).  At Stanford they operated on Susan for over 3 hours, and managed to stabilize her condition.  She is currently sedated in the ICU, and will face multiple operations in the next few days.  

Meanwhile, my friends and family have been very helpful.  A teacher from the school notified me of the accident, and parents of Aaron's class have volunteered to help.  Both my mom (who is a Family-Nurse-Practitioner) and Amy Solomon (who is a MD) provided much help in translating medical terms, and providing advice and advocacy for Susan and me.  Kirsten Jones brought food for me, Aaron, and anybody else who needed it.  Many friends and family went to the hospital (both hospitals).  It was truly heartwarming.

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So what happens next?  I'm afraid that I can't keep everyone up to date by myself, so a friend is setting up an email list that will keep people up-to-date (more on that later).  In the coming weeks (and she will probably be in the hospital for weeks), I'm sure Susan will appreciate visitors -- but not now!  Susan will probably be kept sedated for the next several days, so this is not the time to visit her.  I suspect I'll be in and out of the hospital waiting room a fair amount, and I will certainly appreciate some company -- but you should probably call ahead.  I'm going to do my best with helping Susan, and taking good care of Aaron.  

Many people have volunteered to help, which I very much appreciate.  I suspect I'll take up the offers in the near future (for example I still don't know where the car got towed to, or what happened to Susan's purse and personal effects).  Aaron and I are doing OK for now, but it will probably be in the as yet unknown future that we most need your help.  Thanks everyone, and please keep Susan in your prayers. 

 Michael McKay

PS: During the night Susan briefly came to consciousness.  The nurse asked her to squeeze her fingers and she did.  After that they increased the level of sedation to help promote healing.

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