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| Thomas Vogt |
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| On December 15, 2006 Thomas fell 20 - 25 Ft. from a forklift. He suffered severe head trauma and many broken bones in the neck, face, upper and lower back. Cards can be sent to 622 S. Anza St., El Cajon, CA 92020. Please keep Thomas in your prayers. Visting hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Villas Las Palmas. Feel free to write a note, prayer, thoughts, news, events or whatever in Thomas' journal. |
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| We are no longer updating this site. Please click here to visit the new blog. Thank you. 6/22/07 Thomas was transferred back to Villa Las Palmas today; he is doing much better. He waved goodbye to the ambulance driver and his mom! 6/20/07 Thomas was admitted to Grossmont Hospital today for evaluation. His hands and arms were like ice and the doctor just wanted to make sure he was ok. At Grossmont, they discovered he had UTI and trach infection so they are going to see what different medications will work and hopefully keep the infections from going to sepsis again. 6/14/07 Today the physical therapist sat Thomas up on the side of his bed for eight minutes. Thomas seemed like he enjoyed sitting up. Each day they will sit him up increasing the time, then he will be able to sit in a wheel chair. 06/12/07 Today was a very busy day for Thomas. The respiratory therapist changed his trach to a style that will help to wean him so the trach can be removed completely. Then they put a cap inside the trach hole that limits the airflow which makes Thomas use his throat muscles to breath and allows him to begin to make sounds. The speech therapist evaluated Thomas and asked him the say the "aaaaa" sound, which he attempted to do. They say that once he realizes he can make sounds, there will be no stopping him! Then the physical therapist, Blake, evaluated Thomas. Blake will be talking with Thomas' doctor tomorrow to find out his limitations. He will then make a plan for Thomas to begin physical therapy and to get Thomas out of bed! While Jeanette and Sudie were visiting today, Thomas moved his arm up to touch the RT's hand about a foot above him! The RT said that they were using a feather to tickle Thomas' forehead and he was reaching up and scratching it! Thomas also shook his head NO when asked! Thomas is responding now and we couldn't be happer! 06/08/07 Thomas is being discharged from the hospital today. He is being transferred to Villa Las Palmas Healthcare Center in El Cajon. Because of insurance reasons, we had to find a different facility. Villa Las Palmas seems to be a very nice facility with very caring staff. Thomas is becoming more and more alert each day. He is no longer considered to be in a coma, he is in more of a minimally responsive state. Please continue to keep Thomas in your thoughts and prayers. 06/04/07 Thomas has gone back to the hospital with a UTI and possible sepsis. He was admitted on Friday evening to Sharp Grossmont but is doing much better now. 05/22/07 Sorry we haven't updated the page in a while. There hasn't been much change over the last few weeks. Thomas is still not getting any physical therapy and the center won't allow him to sit in a wheel chair until they are able to use a hoist. The orthopaedic surgeon won't allow him in the hoist for another six weeks. A girl friend of Jeanette's, Cindy Stellar, performed energy healing on Thomas while he was in the hospital. Thomas seemed to respond to it so Jeanette has asked her to come out to Chase for more sessions. Please continue to include Thomas and his family in your thoughts and prayers. 05/08/2007 Thomas was moved back to Chase Care Center yesterday. He was very alert and responding with blinks. The therapist at the center will begin some physical therapy on his upper extremities tomorrow. 04/29/2007 Thomas is doing well. He is still in ICU at Sharp hospital. He is starting to respond like he did prior to the seizures. We are not sure how much longer he will be in the hospital. We are hoping they will start sitting him up in a chair and begin physical therapy. 04/24/2007 Thomas' surgery went well. He was in surgery until after midnight this morning and was awake when I left the hospital at 2:15 a.m. He didn't seem to be in much pain but they were going to give him a little pain medicine to help him sleep. He was put on a respirator so he wouldn't have to work hard to breath. They will remove him from it some time tomorrow. They are going to continue giving him antibiotics to make sure the screws they put in his back don't get infected. When I left the hospital this evening, he was running a low grade fever but resting. 04/22/2007 Most of the infections have cleared up and Thomas will be having surgery Monday, April 23rd. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. 04/16/2007 It has been a hectic few days. Thomas went to the hospital on the 12th and was admitted with a UTI, a white blood count of 21000, low potassium and was dehydrated. We spent the next couple days figuring out what other infections he had going on; an infection in the wound on his back, his lungs and his stomach. Early this morning he suffered two seizures and was put back on the ventilator for a short time. The doctors believe the antibiotics caused lots of secretions in the trach and probably blocked his airway which caused the seizures. He was brought to ICU and then taken off the ventilator when they decided that he was breathing on his own. Later this afternoon, he went into surgery to have the infection on the wound on his back cleaned and drained. Because of the seizure medication and the anesthesia he was out of it the rest of the day. We hope tomorrow he won't have any affects from the seizures; a CT scan showed no new signs of damage. Once all the infections clear up, he will be scheduled for the surgery on the fracture of his back. 04/11/2007 We are much closer to getting a surgery date. The othopaedic surgeon wants Thomas to be checked into the hospital as soon as possible because he has a sore on his back that looks like it might be infected. When Thomas coughs, the broken portion of his back rubs on the bed causing friction so the sore won't heal. The doctor wants to have a plastic surgeon look at it and get Thomas off his back. While he's in the hospital, he will schedule the surgery for his back and possibly his neck if it is necessary. We should know in a day or two when Thomas will be checked into the hospital. 04/09/2007 Thomas has pneumonia again and possibly another UTI. He has an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon on the 11th and then we will see when he can have the surgery for his back. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers, we need some good news for a change. 04/03/2007 Still no surgery date as of yet, we are waiting to hear back from the orthopaedic surgeon. Thomas has been running a fever but so far the nurses haven't ran any tests to find out why. Thomas did give his mom a thumbs-up, a kiss and stuck his tongue out when asked today. He is doing better at these tasks each day. 03/22/2007 Thomas' feeding tube was reinserted and he's already back at Chase. It only took 20 minutes and he was alert throughout procedure. When he was asked to give a "thumbs up", he raised his thumb and held it there. We were very happy. We are now waiting on a surgery date. Hopefully it will be quickly. 03/21/2007 Thomas' feeding tube was pulled out today so he'll have to go back to Sharp tomorrow for emergency surgery. We don't know how long he will be there but we are hoping that the back/neck surgery will be scheduled right away and he'll be able to stay there for a while. 03/20/2007 Sorry we haven't updated the site in several weeks. There wasn't really anything new to report till now. Thomas had a doctor's appointment with the neurosurgeon today and he was cleared for surgery on his neck and back. We have been working with Thomas to get him to stick out his tongue and he has done it a couple times for us and when we ask him to give us a "thumbs up" we can see him trying to move his thumb. These are small steps but we are thankful for all the steps we can get. The doctor was not happy that Thomas does not move his upper body very much but we are hoping that since they started range of motion exercises last week, that will improve. Please keep Thomas in your thoughts and prayers; we need all the prayers and good wishes we can get for Thomas' recovery from the surgery. 03/09/2007 Thomas is doing about the same. He is still taking antibiotics for the UTI, pneumonia and a stomach infection. The stomach infection is caused by the antibiotics. He has an appointment next week with the neurosurgeon and we are praying that he clears Thomas for the surgery on his neck and back, then he will be able to start rehab. 03/01/2007 Thomas' fever broke and he is doing better. He is responding intermittently by blinking several times to answer questions. Today he gave his mom a little kiss and squeezed her hand when asked which made her very happy! |
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