[NautiNurse]

One very positive sign is that Everett was able to exert respiratory effort today when the mechanical ventilator was briefly removed. The level of his spinal cord injury (C3-C4) is the critical level for innervation of the diaphragm for spontaneous respirations.

For comparison, Mike Utley suffered a C6-C7 fracture. He has sensation across his chest, and breathes spontaneously without assistance. Christopher Reeve suffered a C1-C2 fracture. A severe spinal cord injury above C3 will typically require mechanical ventilation permanently, in the extremely rare event the injured patient survives the immediate injury.

One more item of note--en route to the hospital, the first responders cooled Everett's core body temperature to minimize tissue damage in the critical minutes following the injury. In light of the perilous fracture and injury, this was a masterful action by the medical team.

p.s. I worked for several years in Neuro Intensive Care. We had spinal cord injury patients in the unit every day.

[cherry]

nurse, what have you heard about high doses of steroids immediately following this kind of horrible injury?...is there hope in that?

[dfwgator]

How similar was Everett’s injury to Dennis Byrd’s.

Byrd was eventually able to make a full recovery, so hopefully that’s a good sign for Everett.