[tuq]

OP,

I regged and will leave a note. I don't know how stuff like this could help but if it does then great. Best of Luck.

From the site once you register (OP can't mind me posting since he asked us to go there anyway):

"As some of you might or might not know Justin is in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Mass General.

On Saturday around 11:30 AM Justin was skateboarding, and performing some maneuver the skateboard projected upward and struck him in the neck. He temporarily was unable to breath but was able to regain it in 15-20 seconds. His friend’s mother was concerned over his complaining of pain and the hoarseness of his speech and brought him to the Emergency Room at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

A CT scan was performed at Baystate and it was determined he had severed his right vocal cord. There are no specialists in our area to deal with this type of injury so the decision was made to send him to Mass General. A team was supposed to fly down to pick him up, but due to the winds on Saturday night the helicopters were grounded, so a team had to drive from Boston to transport him there. Justin did not arrive at Mass General till approximately 2:00 AM on Sunday; he was up most of the night and morning being evaluated and was admitted to the PICU.

Surgery was scheduled for 1:15 PM on Sunday and should have lasted for about 45 minutes. They originally attempted to repair the vocal cord using an endoscope procedure but the doctor was unable to repair the cord this way due to the extent of the damage, a more invasive procedure was necessary. Surgery took over 5 hours. A tracheotomy was necessary to allow him to breathe, so that he would not disturb the surgical site. He was brought back to the PICU at around 7:15 PM and we were able to see him around 8:15.

He was left under anesthesia and on a respirator for the next 24 hours. At this point they brought him out and he was able to begin breathing on his own. A second surgery was scheduled for Thursday to remove the tracheotomy and to ensure the vocal cord repair was a success.

Over the next few days Justin continued having a cough allowing air to get in to the tissue in his neck and chest and as well as the chest cavity. He was given a larger trach, put back on sedatives, and back on a respirator. Due to these complications surgery was put off till Monday.

At this point he is on 3 mg of Morphine per hour and 3mg of Versed per hour so he is pretty much under until they perform the surgery on Monday. If all goes well with the surgery they will remove the trach and he should be released from the PICU on Wednesday or Thursday."