Daily Archive for May 4th, 2009

Monday 4th May

Darryl was fairly on the move today with another MRI scan and later this afternoon he was hoisted out of his bed and put in a lazy boy chair where he sat more upright.

Yesterday he had a chest X-Ray and a CT scan to rule out any potential issues as they seem to think he is not progressing as he should given his initial positive repsonses to commands.

In any event the scans didn’t show up anything alarming  as far as I have been able to find out, although he still has quite a bad chest infection which they are working hard to resolve before it develops into something worse.  I haven’t got the results of the MRI as yet so don’t know what’s happening there.  HDU is quite a lot less intensive than in the critical care ward where it is one to one.  There are two nurses to a maximum of five patients and it takes a little bit of adjusting from a parents point of view.

So in all today there has been no real progress although to me he does look more alert – if you can be alert in a coma.  He seems restful and his body looks fine so I hope his brain is also repairing while he’s off in ‘lala’ land.

Brenna read him another story tonight and she seems to be coping very well considering.  I have been fending off the media all day who have picked up on the preventable head injury line.

The amusing if not tragically sad aspect of today was seeing Darryl sitting there motionless in an armchair with bloody rugby head gear on!   They actually fitted him with head gear to protect his skull which has a large piece of bone missing .  It seems so sadly ironic that the last time he had rugby head gear on was when he collapsed into a coma on the sideline having worn it to ‘protect’ his head on the rugby field.

It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry.  At the moment the crying seems to be the automatic reposonse.

Please share the link to this site with others who may be interested to keep up to date on Darryl.

Thanks again all.

Mike

Wednesday 29th April – Sunday 3rd May

From the Wednesday on, the thin thread of hope we were hanging on to seemed to grow a little thicker.  One of the first real ‘positive’ signs was when I heard a nurse yelling at Darryl in the early hours of the morning to give her a “thumbs up”.  When I returned to his bedside a few minutes later I was too scared to ask if he had responded, really feeling it couldn’t possibly be achievable.  A little later on his nurse calmly explained that she was pleased he had given her a thumbs up on command.  I just about wet myself!!  What a breakthrough.

Over the first few days I had spent a lot of time telling each of his nurses and the doctors that Darryl had a heart like and ox and the stubbornness of a mule.  That if anyone was going to have the mental and physical strength to get out of this situation it would be him.  I wanted them to know they were dealing with a very very determined and strong-willed young man who wouldn’t give up!  I could tell in the early days that they were listening but not really believing that that would be enough, or that it would make a difference.  It’s not hard to see why.  So many who come into that ward don’t make it, despite their world-class care.

Continue reading ‘Wednesday 29th April – Sunday 3rd May’

Saturday 25th April – Tuesday 28th

On the afternoon of ANZAC day, Saturday the 25th of April 2009, our much loved son, brother, grandson and friend of so many, Darryl Sabin, entered a monumental battle of his own, the fight for his life.

Darryl who will be 19 in September, was playing his second game of rugby since suffering a serious head injury in March 2007 while playing for Eastern under 18’s.  On this latest occasion he was playing for Te Hapua, at Te Hapua and true to form he was the team captain and leading from the front.

Continue reading ‘Saturday 25th April – Tuesday 28th’