John's Recovery

On behalf of John and our family, I want to express our sincerest gratitude for the love that has been shown to us through prayers, letters, emails, kind words, visits and meals. Today is 37th day since John suffered severe brain trauma and numerous other injuries in a hit-and-run accident while riding his bicycle on highway-1 in Big Sur. Although numerous issues remain, we thank God that much healing has taken place. Today, February 24th, is his mother’s birthday, the fourth since she went home to be with the Lord in 2010. I am sharing a photo I took of John with Roberta (and Christiana & Marten) on a fun and memorable bike ride in Kinderdijk, Netherlands a few months before Roberta’s cancer.

February 8

fter spending seven days in the critical care unit at Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, John was transferred to the neurology unit at Kaiser Sunset in Hollywood. John has sustained numerous injuries including brain hemorrhages, skull fracture, fractured clavicle, damaged inner ear, abrasions and possible facial nerve damage in a hit-and-run accident on highway-1 in Big Sur while riding from UC Berkeley to UC Santa Barbara (see previous posts). John continues to experience severe pain and has not yet gained an appetite for food. We are very thankful for the wonderful care he received in SLO and the encouragement he received from Julianne Taylor and Kenta Ishi who live in SLO. We pray that John will be able to start eating and regain all that was so quickly taken from him in the felony hit-and-run collision. John is very lethargic, so please contact me before visiting. Recently Pastor Svendsen preached on Habakkuk 3:17-19"Though the fig tree does not budand there are no grapes on the vines,though the olive crop failsand the fields produce no food,though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to tread on the heights."

May we always find our joy in our Savior, not in our circumstances.

(This photo is of John with his brother Stephen and sister-in-law Jess at UC Berkeley where John is an engineering grad student)

January 23

We are so grateful for the tremendous outpouring of concern for John. Your thoughts and prayers mean so much to us. Today is day-5 since the hit-and-run accident that put him in critical care. John had tremendous pain today and the speech therapist, physical therapist and occupational therapist all gave up on him because of his pain and inability to focus. Then around 7PM, two friends who live in SLO (Kenta Ishi and Julianne Taylor) came for another visit, expecting to talk with John for only a minute or two. Instead they stayed and talked for two hours! John was able to open his eyes fully (for the first time) and carry on a relatively normal conversation (for the first time)! In addition he actually ate a small amount of food. (The first time he ate anything was a few bites this morning). Although John was subdued, he talked, initiated conversation, smiled and even laughed. It was absolutely amazing, and we gathered afterwards to thank God for this incredible gift. Shortly after Julieanne and Kenta left, John's pain peaked again and he experienced fever-like conditions, and even now is groaning in pain in his sleep as I write this update. The two-hour window that we witnessed gave us such encouragement, and we are confident it will encourage John as well. The road to healing is long and hard, but we thank God gave us such a wonderful and totally unexpected gift tonight. Thanks for your prayers and expressions of love to John.

Norm & family

(This is a photo of John when he was mountain biking in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado near Silverton in 1996 when five years old)

January 22

January 22

Dear family & friends, Today is day-4 of John's recovery following the hit-and-run accident on highway-1 in Big Sur (see previous posts). I am so thankful that so many people are concerned for John and remembering him in thought & prayer. Many people have offered to come by, and we are very grateful for this, but unfortunately now is really not a good time for people outside of the San Luis Obispo region to visit as John can only attend to a conversation for about a minute. I am very, very thankful to report that he has been able to form complete sentences and conduct reasonable (although very brief) conversations with Kenta Ishi (a room-mate whom he knows from UCSB, RUF, Bible study) and Julieanne Taylor (daughter of some very close family friends), both whom live in SLO. I even witnessed the traces of a smile with both conversations. In conversations with me he has only responded with "yes" and "no", but with them he was able to initiate simple questions and respond in brief sentences. The other big news is that he has walked down the hall with the physical therapist and shows only moderate nystagmus.I am very impressed with the medical staff here at Sierra Vista Regional Medical center trauma unit. John is receiving excellent care. Each day he gets a CT scan and the physicians are we are thankful that the hemorrhages in his brain do not appear to have grown. There is no final diagnosis on the fluid leaking from his ear, but it has slowed considerably and they no longer believe that they contain cerebrospinal fluid, which is a good sign. He can not seem to hear out of his left ear due to a ruptured tympanic membrane, but his hearing in his right ear is fine. I will try to keep everyone updated by regularly posting on Facebook. When John is asleep, I am generally working on my courses at the university. I am designing numerous online lessons and communicating with students since this is the first week of class. This is a very large task, but I use my phone as personal hotspot and have good Internet which allows me to upload numerous multimedia & interactive and traditional resources. This photo was taken on a backpack with John in Matterhorn Canyon in the High Sierra this summer. Blessings to all, Norm —

January 20

Dear friends, we are so very grateful for the prayers and wonderful thoughts and expressions of love on behalf of John. It is evident that John is in tremendous pain, and the doctors said this will probably persist for a long time. The doctors are monitoring his brain and skull injuries. His left clavicle is broken and significantly displaced, but since clavicles are nearly impossible to set, they intend to let it heal on its own. His left eardrum was ruptured, but the good news is that they now think that the fluid that has been flowing from his ear is cochlear fluid, and not cerebrospinal fluid. He does not seem to be able to hear out of his left ear, but his hearing should return as the tympanic membrane heals. This probably contributes to his diziness and queasiness. John now seems to know that he was hit by a car and he knows that he is in a hospital. I am sleeping in a chair next to him and attending to his needs. Stephen was a tremendous help yesterday and today. John had four visitors today and seemed to recognize them all… the Hibners, Julianne Taylor (from SLO) and Kristen Morse (from UCSB). The staff has suggested that we will be staying here in CCU for a "long time", but they have not specified what that means. Many of the medical staff heard about the hit-and-run accident on the news, and a good friend from Aptos posted this article on their Facebook page:"Hit and Run on Highway 1. California Highway Patrol Officers are looking for the driver involved in a hit-and-run that happened on Sunday afternoon. The CHP says a driver hit a bicyclist on Highway 1 near Ragged Point Inn near Big Sur at 1:15 p.m.

The cyclist was taken to a nearby hospital. The extent of his injuries are unknown."

We thank God that John is alive. Thank you for all of your prayers and kind words. I wish I had time to respond to them individually, but I hope that these updates will suffice. I am thankful to John’s friend Cedar Lay for the photos I have posted.

January 19