Amish Accident in Christian County, KY

Death of child distresses area residents

I photographed a peaceful Amish farm in southern Christian County, KY, last week (image below.)  I'm really not sure what's growing in the little field behind the white fence. The large-leafed plants looked like tobacco to me. but the plants are much closer together in the rows than tobacco is usually planted around here.  

Last week, a tragic event jarred the quiet Amish community that includes this farm. A three-year-old Amish child was killed when a tractor-trailer hit a buggy, south of Hopkinsville on Highway 41-A. Three other family members were life-flighted to Nashville, and are expected to survive. One of the horses pulling the buggy was killed. The accident took place at about 8:30 p.m. It is not fully dark at that time.

The truck driver who hit the buggy is suspected of being under the influence of some drug, according to the Kentucky New Era's report of the accident.  He is being held in the Christian County jail while urine and blood tests are completed.* Charges against him currently include murder, criminal mischief, and assault.

This is not the first time that Amish buggies have been involved in accidents along Highway 41-A. It's a busy 4-lane highway, but the Amish venture onto it in horse-drawn vehicles, sometimes even after dark. Signs along the highway warn that buggies may be traveling the route, and the buggies nearly always have slow-moving-vehicle warning triangles, and many use battery-powered flashing lights after dark. Despite these precautions, accidents happen, and the accidents are always distressing to the community at large.

Not surprisingly, public sentiment is running high in the aftermath of this tragedy. The Kentucky New Era's report has 85 comments, ranging from sympathy for the Amish to intolerance and outright hatred of them. The accident is also being discussed on the Hoptown Hall (local internet forum).

Personally, I'm in the "everyone-needs-to-be-more-careful" camp. As one KNE commenter wrote, this accident happened to involve a buggy, but any slow-moving vehicle, on the road at that moment, was at risk of being rear-ended by this driver. It could just as easily have been a farmer on a tractor or someone on a bicycle.

*On August 27, 2011, the Kentucky New Era reported that the truck driver's blood and urine tests showed no evidence of drug or alcohol intoxication. The truck driver's attorney, Rick Boling, stated that he believes his client was involved in a simple automobile accident, not reckless driving or wanton endangerment or anything more serious.

On The Road Again

All In The Family...

Some people really don't know when to say, "Enough!" Here is Dennis with his bike. He's determined to get back on the road. You can see how he's decked out in full safety garb (and also, how he's too thin for his clothing!)

Ten weeks have passed since his accident. He's doing very well, but I'm a little nervous about that bike and perhaps he is also.

A few days ago, when he came back from his walk, he said a big pickup truck with dual wheels in back had come up behind him on the highway. He said the unique sound of those rear duals was very much like the sound of the vehicle that hit him. We'll never know, I'm sure, but we can't help wondering who... and why...

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The Patient Is Improving

All In The Family...

It's been just 2-1/2 weeks since Dennis's accident -- even though it feels like it happened a couple of months ago. I'm happy to report that he's doing a little better every day!

Dennis went back to Dr. Robb, the orthopedic surgeon, last Wednesday and had the clamps taken out of the incisions in his arm. Dr. Robb was pleased that he's healing well. He gave Dennis a few simple exercises to help him regain flexibility.

Yesterday, Dennis had an appointment with Dr. Love, the surgeon who would have taken out his spleen had it come to that. Dr. Love said Dennis can start taking some short walks outside, but to avoid any bumps or jolts that could dislodge the clots where his spleen is healing.

Dennis still isn't sleeping very soundly, but he spends part of the night in the recliner and he can get out of it without help. When he gets tired of sleeping in it, he gets in bed, and then I do have to wake up and help him when he needs to get up. When I help him up from bed, I notice that he's much stronger now than he was a week and a half ago.

The folks at church decided that we needed help, and several of the ladies have brought us food. It truly was helpful at first, but we're doing so much better now that I'm going to call the mastermind of this food-bringing and put a stop to it if anyone else shows up.

Dennis has received about a zillion get-well cards, and many friends and neighbors have called or stopped by to say hello. Several of the neighbor ladies have also sent food.

We're humbled, yet strengthened, by the genuine concern, heartfelt good-will, and earnest prayers that have been offered by many people.

I am thankful that I haven't yet heard Dennis express extreme bitterness about his injuries, (other than referring to the (ir)responsible driver as "that s.o.b. that hit me"). Tonight he talked a little about some of the plans we were making before all this happened.

His ribs are still painful and his arm is still in a brace. He tires quickly, and he still needs pain medicine, but he's made great strides toward recovery since he crawled out of that ditch. Thanks be to God.


I can't change it now, but I should have titled this, "The Patient Is Getting Well," not "The Patient Is Improving." (The patient is pretty much the same guy he's always been. I haven't noticed any improvement at all.)
;)

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Rainy Trip to Guthrie

All In The Family... Life in Christian County, Kentucky...

After a night of heavy rain

It pays to have connections, or I should say, "A friend in need is a friend indeed."

A friend from church brought out a comfy old recliner one day this week for Dennis to use. I don't know if it's a loaner or a keeper, but we're grateful for it. It gives Dennis another place where he can stretch out and rest, and he can get up from it without assistance.

Meanwhile, a friend who works at the newspaper called to say she had taken an ad for a recliner. I called the owner, a Mr. Covington, and made arrangements to look at it this morning.

On the drive over to Guthrie, Kentucky, I saw lots of evidence of the heavy rain and wind we received during the night. I guess we're having an equinox storm. I couldn't find any evidence on the weather maps that we're in the fringe area of any tropical depressions or such.

Wind-blown leaves and small branches are scattered across the smaller roadways. Weeds and tall grass along the ditches are still bent from the torrent of water that washed over them in the night. In Elkton, a little stream is completely out of its banks. I drove through occasional showers all the way over to Guthrie.

I found Mr. Covington's house easily, using the directions he gave me: "Go to the pink elephant and...". The pink elephant at the junction of Highways 79 and 41, the Pachyderm of Tinytown, is a well-known landmark in this part of the state.

Mr. Harry Covington is an interesting gentleman. He's about 75 or 80 years old, and he lives in a brick ranch home with a circle drive that he built 40 years ago.

On the wall of his office, he has an old photograph of a horse-drawn milk wagon. When Mr. Covington was a boy. his father and mother and the nine Covington children milked 30 Jersey cows and delivered milk in glass bottles all around Guthrie. Mr. Covington pointed out that Guthrie was a boom-town in those days because two major railways intersected there.

I asked him if he remembered Robert Penn Warren who was born and raised at Guthrie, and Mr. Covington described how the poet used to stroll down the sidewalks in town, wearing long stockings and old-fashioned pants that ended just below his knees.

When this old white-haired gentleman heard that my husband had just come home from Iraq, he told me that he prayed every night for peace on earth, and he had done so ever since he came home from World War II. He said he had been a Marine at Iwo Jima, and he'd never forgotten what he saw there.

On the walls of his office, Mr. Covington has pictures of his children, many newspaper clippings with stories about himself, various awards, and his Kentucky Colonel appointments from two different governors. His business card says that he is the chairman of the Guthrie Industrial Development Commission, Inc.

But back to the recliner. It's a small, sturdy recliner that sits very nicely. Mr. Covington is going to take it over to Clarksville to a shop that steam-cleans upholstery, and I will pick it up there next week.

On the way home, I stopped at the Country Pantry, an Amish bulk food store located between Guthrie and Elkton. Half a dozen automobiles were parked outside, and their "English" owners were in the store. I bought flour, yeast, flaxseed and a pound of Amish sausage.

Some things at the Amish store are amazingly cheap (like spices and yeast), while other things are surprisingly expensive They offer a larger variety of flours than any other store I know of. I always enjoy looking around there, and I'll have another excuse to stop in when I drive over to Clarksville to pick up the recliner.

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Cost of Dennis's Hospital Stay

All In The Family...

I went by the hospital today and got Dennis's bill so I can give it to the car insurance adjuster. I thought my readers might be interested to know the final tally (brace yourself): $51,972.00.

That figure includes 6 days in the hospital (several days in intensive care), anesthesiology, emergency room, surgery (about 1/3 of the total bill), recovery room, respiratory therapy (cheapest thing on the bill), CAT scans and MRI, X-ray, lab, and pharmacy. I don't know yet if there will be individual bills from the doctors as well.

I still feel confident that the health insurance and the car insurance will cover the vast majority of this figure between the two of them. If I weren't fairly sure about that, I'd be worried.

Dennis goes to the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow to get the stitches out of his arm. It will be a big day for him, getting bathed and clothed, then to town to the doctor and home again.

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Tobacco Barn Fire

And other late-night happenings

This was a tobacco barn.

It was a bad Saturday night in our little neighborhood.

During the night, our volunteer fire department and two others fought a fire that involved a home and an unoccupied trailer house. It appears to have been set on purpose.

Also during the night, a tobacco barn burned to the ground (photo above). It's in yet another volunteer fire department's district. The smoldering sawdust and slabs at the bottom of the barn got too hot and ignited the entire building.

Every fall, a couple of tobacco barns burn, but it must be sickening for a farmer to get a phone call in the night that a summer of work is going up in smoke. I hope the owner of the tobacco in this barn had insurance. I hope the barn owner did, too.

The telephone line got hot enough in the barn fire that dozens of homes lost telephone service around 11:30 p.m. The phone was dead until about 6 p.m. today.

Sometime during the night, someone did an unsuccessful three-point turn at our mailbox on the highway. The car was abandoned with three wheels on solid ground and the fourth wheel deep down in the ditch.

Unaware of the happenings in the neighborhood, I was helping Dennis in and out of bed. Our intervals of sleep ranged from 45 minutes to an hour and a half. Even newborn babies sleep better than Dennis does right now, but he can't help it. He would certainly sleep through the night and get out of bed on his own if he could.

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Related post: Firing the Tobacco

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Home Health Care -- Day 1

All In The Family...

What we actually need!

We brought Dennis home from the hospital yesterday afternoon. I won't say it has been easy so far, but we are coping.

His left arm is broken, so he needs his right arm at the side of the bed to help him get up and down. He also needs to sleep on the side of the bed that is nearest the bathroom.

To accommodate these needs, we are sleeping with our feet at the head of the bed. I cut a piece of plywood that fits between the bedposts at the foot of the bed and wrapped it with a quilt to use as a temporary headboard.

Since he doesn't have a pull bar or a button he can push to raise himself , I give him my right hand to pull on and with my left arm, I reach behind his back to lift him as he comes up. Going back down, I help him swing his legs back up into bed and get his pillows back into position. If he were any larger, we'd have to figure something else out -- like maybe renting a hospital bed!

Last night, I guess we were up and down five or six times in the night so he could use the bathroom -- or at least it seemed like that many times in my stupefied state of drowse. Dennis always gets up a couple times per night, and he says it's worse now. Maybe it's because of the catheter he had or the medicine he's on.

Today, I planned out his pills so that at midnight, he gets his pain pills, his muscle relaxer, and his anti-nausea med. I think that will help him make it through the night.

Dennis got half a dozen cards in the mail today and several phone calls from people asking about him. Our Mennonite neighbor from down the road stopped to see how he was. His spirits are a little better now that he's home. He actually told his mother on the phone that he was getting much better care than when he was in the hospital.

I am hoping to find a used recliner in good mechanical condition for him. I can sew on a new covering of upholstery fabric if need be. I'm interested in function, not form. After buying a new water heater and finding out what it will cost to put Isaac on the car insurance (gasp!), I don't really want to buy a new recliner right now.

The Journey Back

All In The Family...

This photo was taken at the Customs House Museum in Cairo, Illinois, about five years ago. It's a massive, handsome old building on Cairo's main street, just a block or two from the Mississippi River docks. In the old days when Cairo was an important river port, all sorts of import and export legalities were managed from the Customs House.

This is a back stairway which hadn't been reached yet by restoration efforts. The picture appeals to me today because I'm feeling bleak and hollow with occasional bursts of light.

Dennis is getting out of the hospital this afternoon. I am picking Isaac up from school and then going to get Dennis. He is very tottery on his feet. If he can't make it up the steps into the house, Isaac and I will have to make a chair in our arms and carry him in, I guess.

He's happy to be coming home, and I understand his desire to get out of the hospital, and I am grateful that he has recovered as much as he has. I hope he continues to recover rapidly and I really hope that his home care (provided by me) goes smoothly.

Another Day of Recovery

All In The Family...

Dennis is doing better day by day. Today he got his catheter out and he now has to get out of bed to pee. (He doesn't travel far because he's still wired in several places.)

With better health, Dennis is becoming very irritable. He doesn't remember much about his first couple days, so he thinks he's not progressing fast enough, I guess.

The doctor prescribed some muscle relaxers today. Dennis drifted in and out of sleep all afternoon, talking crazy and gesturing wildly all the while. The combination of the pain killers and the muscle relaxers really sent him to a different place.

I made Dennis promise that he'd call the nurses when he has to get up in the night. Then I told the nurses that they'd better check on him frequently because I was afraid for his safety if he tried to climb out of bed alone.

When I got home, I discovered that the water heater is leaking -- badly. I turned off the water and electric to it and tried to sop up some of the water that's on the floor, despite the plastic dish-with-a-drain that the water heater sets in.

The clothes drier quit working the day that Dennis got home and I haven't had a chance to get a repairman out here for it yet. I don't want to say that "surely nothing else can go wrong", because it might!

I've been keeping my sanity at the hospital by reading. I've been wanting to read my new book of Willa Cather short stories, but they require more focus than I can muster under the circumstances. So instead, I've read two juvenile books, It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville and The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster.

Today, I took along All Creatures Great and Small by James Harriot. I'd forgotten what a heartwarming and amusing book it is. I enjoyed it so much that I think I'll re-read another of his books when I finish this one.

Progress

All In The Family...

Dennis was moved today from ICU to Medical-Surgical. He still has most of his paraphernalia attached to him, but he did leave behind the automatic blood pressure cuff and the sensors that had been attached to his chest.

Tomorrow, they will start having him sit up a little, first on the edge of the bed and then on a chair. His ribs are really sore, so that won't be much fun for him.

I came home for a couple of hours in the afternoon and they moved him during that time. When Isaac and I came back, Dennis was in the new room and had already had three visitors and a phone call. He was tired from the move and the conversation, so we left at about 7:00 p.m. so he could sleep.

Life Goes On

All In The Family...

Dennis seemed to be a little better overall today. Now that his arm is set and on a splint, he can pick it up with his other arm and move it. He is still in a lot of pain, but it's not as bad as the first two days.

Today he had solid food and he was bathed, so he made a couple of big steps back toward the land of the living.

The orthopedic surgeon stopped by and talked to us again. He told us that Dennis would have to keep his arm in a sling for about three weeks, and after that, he will have a removable brace thing to wear for a while. He can take it off to shower.

The other surgeon said that he wanted to keep Dennis one more day in ICU where he's hooked up to monitors. If the spleen continues to behave itself and Dennis continues to improve, he may get out of ICU tomorrow and possibly go home on Monday. They won't put any sort of bandage on the broken ribs, and it will take five or six weeks for them to heal.

Tomorrow, I will go to the hospital at 10:00 (the earliest they will allow me to visit) so I can hear what the doctor has to say. After that I'll come home for a couple hours to do a little housecleaning and change the sheets on the bed in preparation for Dennis to come home. Then Isaac and I will go back to the hospital to visit again.

I am so sleepy that I'm nearly nodding off over the keyboard, so I am going to bed!

A Day At the Hospital

All In The Family...

The surgery waiting room

The major event of this day was surgery on Dennis's broken arm. We spent the first part of the day waiting to go to surgery, then I waited about six hours for him to come out of surgery and the recovery room, and finally I saw him back in his room again. He is still in Intensive Care.

The orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Beel, said that the surgery went well. They put two titanium plates in Dennis's arm, one for each broken bone. If there are no complications, he should regain full use of it in about three months.

Dennis told me (and later told Keely also) that he thought he tried to leave after the surgery, so I think that might be why they kept him in the recovery room so long. They probably had to restrain him.

Keely came home this evening and will be here for the weekend. Her boyfriend Taurus came with her, and I was glad he did because I know she was a bit agitated.

Pastor Redmann has come to visit and pray for Dennis several times, and we appreciate his support. I hope I have telephoned all the family members that I should.

I guess Dennis is doing as well as can be expected. Last night after I left, they decided that he was not breathing deeply enough (due to the fractured ribs) so they started giving him oxygen. They also thought his blood pressure was staying a bit too low, so they put some leg wraps on him that squeeze the blood back up and help keep his blood pressure up.

Today he was in a lot of pain. I hope that he won't hurt quite as much tomorrow, now that the bones are set and splinted in his arm. The orthopedic surgeon said that he thought Dennis might be able to come home on Monday, but the other surgeon who is in charge of the spleen will have the final say on it.

When I got home last night, I got out the automobile insurance policy and read it. It does provide coverage for hit and run drivers, so hopefully they will pick up the charges that the medical insurance doesn't cover. I called today and made an accident report, and a claims adjuster is supposed to get in touch with me.

Thank you all for your well wishes, prayers, and good thoughts.

Bicycle Accident

All In The Family...

(Charlotte, brace yourself. I tried to telephone you this evening, but I didn't reach you.)

Dennis had a bad bicycle accident this morning. He was hit from the back by a car while he was pedaling up a hill. He and his bicycle were knocked into the ditch and the driver of the car didn't even stop to see if Dennis was dead or alive.

Dennis crawled up to the side of the highway where a neighbor lady spotted him as she drove to work. She called 911 and then called me. I was just leaving to take Isaac to school when I got her call.

Both bones in his left forearm are broken in several places. He also has several fractured ribs on his left side. His spleen has two deep cracks in it.

The doctor said that most spleen injuries like this will heal, but sometimes there are complications. Tonight Dennis is in ICU so they can monitor his condition. He is hooked to IV's, catheter, heart and blood pressure monitor, and a morphine administrator.

Tomorrow morning, they will set the bones in his arm. Plates will be put in the broken places. The orthopedic surgeon said it is a procedure they do fairly often.

Dennis will heal because he's a tough old bird, but it's going to take a while.

He did not see the car that hit him. He heard it approaching from behind, and he moved over to the very edge of the road. There's no shoulder on the road in this area. Apparently, the car hit Dennis' left side, but did not hit the bike itself because it's not badly damaged.

We are very thankful that Dennis is alive, but can't help wondering who hit him and why they didn't stop. That's very cold.