Pat Hartman Sikes

From Bill Sikes
Pat was in an accident on Tuesday morning, March 15, 9:30am. She was turning left (east) onto Route 50 from our side street (Stafford Drive) when a BMW traveling west ran the red light doing 50 mph and hit the front wheel area of her Buick. It knocked her up onto the concrete divider island, pointing southwest, then careened off her car into a van stopped at the light in one of the eastbound lanes. Totaled all three cars.

She called me immediately after the accident and was completely coherent. Since it was at the end of our street I was able to drive up and park in the adjacent office parking lot within a few minutes. The BMW driver admitted running the light AND speeding, total responsibility. Her head hit her side window and her hip hit the door, both were hurting. Nobody thought she was seriously hurt so they offered the choice between Fair Oaks and Fairfax hospitals. We picked Fair Oaks for convenience and away she went in the ambulance, arriving at 10:30am. They did cat scans on her head and xrays on her hip and cleared her to leave at 1:30pm. However, she was feeling nauseous so they gave her a shot to control that. Then we got her dressed and wheeled her to the ER foyer.

When I tried to put her in the car she went completely limp. We got her back in and re-registered (because we had checked out already). Pat thought the anti-nausea medicine had made her extremely tired and less than full control, the ER people thought that was impossible so they ran more tests. That is when they found multiple fractures in her pelvis and internal bleeding. There was no signs of this possibility until we attempted to leave the hospital. Since Fair Oaks isn't equipped to handle that level of trauma she was sent to Fairfax Hospital by helicopter, about 5:00pm. They finally had to do a procedure to stop the internal bleeding at 5:00am and (I was told) put her into an induced coma “so she could heal”. That doctor told me that the next 48 hours were “critical” and that word came up the next day as well.

Pat's kids, Scott and Kim both made arrangements to fly out, and when I asked nurses and doctors if they felt they should come here they all said yes. They definitely thought she was in danger. Apparently there are many things that could still go wrong. That said, as of 8:30pm tonight her nurse told us that she was no longer in the coma, just heavily sedated. What she needs now is rest.

Update as of 10:30am on Thursday, March 17: she is doing better, they had not given her any more fluids, and they said she was more “awake”. I will continue to send updates as I get them.

Saturday, March 19 they had to increase her sedation and let the respirator completely take over her breathing. Since then she has remained level, again a good thing. She is getting the best possible care. We have faith that she will come out of this, but we are aware that cautious optimism is in order.

It is Monday morning, March 21, the kids are scheduled to go home tomorrow, and I think they will. I apologize to all that are getting first knowledge via this email. Please don't call me, I probably won't be able to take the call anyway. I am doing fine, don't worry about me, we - Kim, Scott and myself) don't need anything, concentrate on Pat. Thanks for your prayers and concerns. Do reply, if you want to. Bill.

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