Since the day of the accident things have not gotten any easier. A second surgery to fuse his C2 to C7 vertebrae together was completed on October 23rd. He has experienced fevers up to 106 and had a day where his fever was over 105.5 for six hours! He had another night where his heart rate was 150-180 beats per minute for over four hours. He has had a trachotomy installed after 9 days of feeling like he was being water-boarded by the intubation tubes that were stuck in his mouth and down his throat. As an added aspect of his devastating injury he had to be awake for everything as the more sedation a patient is given the lower their blood pressure and spinal cord injury (SCI) patients need their blood pressure to remain as high as possible.
To his parents it felt like it could not be harder or more unfair to him. It was bad enough to see him paralyzed, but to see him getting tortured both mentally and physically on a daily basis was almost too much to take. The only thing that kept his parents going was to see how tough he was and how he was able to handle the daily pain, the complications, the torturous breathing tubes and more. Here is what happened in his dad’s words:
Update 3 was written on October 24:
We appreciate that all of you have been praying for Jesse and hoping to hear good news. The good news is that he’s alive – the nurses told us yesterday that they have never seen someone come in with his injuries that was still alive! (Point 1 supporting Jesse’s new nickname – the toughest guy in the world!) The other good news is that my friend Lyle Berkowitz, MD, was able to introduce us to Dr. Tyler Koski, who is the head of Northwestern’s Spine Department, so we have an “in” to get Jesse admitted to NMH and/or the Rehab Institute of Chicago. That gives us some hope and comfort. We will always be indebted to Lyle and Dr. Koski for making this happen.
Jesse just got out of his third surgery in 7 days and his second one in two days. Yesterday’s was a tracheotomy in front and today’s was in back of his neck! He is in incredible pain – even with all the drugs in him, he’s in so much pain he can’t sleep. Yet he says things like “put water on my head” or “move me up” and not the things the rest of us would be saying if we were in his position. He’s flat out amazing. He knows he’s paralyzed from the shoulders down. Yet it wasn’t until his 7th day of being water-boarded (the feeling one gets from the breathing tubes down your throat – great for people in a coma, terrible for people awake!) At one point yesterday he spelled out “Shoot me” one letter at a time by nodding when my fingers would get to the right letter! The strength to be able to fight through all this, withstand all this pain, all the while knowing he’s paralyzed – it’s just unbelievable. I almost passed out today from having to see him in pain for the 8th day in a row – and he’s actually feeling it! There is no doubt that he is the toughest guy in the world!
Kathy and I are looking for anything we can do to help him. We are planning to bring him to Chicago as soon as he can be safely moved after today’s 4-hour surgery to fuse his vertebra together (C2 to C7). The surgeon who did Jesse’s two big surgeries gave us no hope for recovery and said stem cells or other treatments could be 10-20 years down the road. That’s not etched in stone, that’s his opinion and what he has to say to protect himself from being sued on every patient. We are willing to do anything if there is a chance for him to gain some function. We owe him every chance, all he wants to know is whether he will walk again. The mental and physical torture that he has gone through, is going through now, and will go through in the future, is nothing any of us could ever imagine. I’m not sure how he’s doing it – other than the fact, he’s truly the toughest guy in the world.
We have lost all our pride in exchange for taking any and all help we can get for our boy. Whether you want to help by donating to the medical care fund that is being started for him (click here to get notified when it is set-up, turns out this isn’t easy because of tax laws) or by praying for him or by matching him to people who can help him in some way or all of the above or anything else – if you can think of something to help Jesse, if your company wants to sponsor him or has contacts who can help him, anything you can do to help him, we’ll take it. From this point forward all our efforts are going to be focused on helping the toughest guy in the world use his arms again and eventually walk again!
Love you all – Dave and Kathy
Update #4 was written on 11/5/13:
What was supposed to be a transfer to NMH on Wednesday afternoon October 30, got cancelled 20 minutes before we were to leave because NMH had no ICU rooms. All day we were telling Jesse about the move and get him psyched up for it and then, last minute, another piece of bad news we had to deliver to him. Wednesday turned into Thursday and then into Friday with no room and no idea when we would be able to bring him to Chicago. We were pretty down and then, on Friday night, November 1st, the room became available and two hours later he was being transported to NMH. By 2:00am we were in the room, doctors were looking at him, and by 5:00am he fell asleep. (That’s when we made the mistake of going home for the first time in 19 days to shower, get clean clothes, nap and come back. We got back and found out his temperature had spiked to 106 while we were gone! Since then they have figured out how to keep it between 96.5 and 101, but it continues to fluctuate as a result of the injury.)
Since his move to NMH he’s had some major steps forward. His pneumonia seems to be on its way out for good. On Monday the 4th they took him off the ventilator and he didn’t miss a beat! He’s now breathing on his own and doing great. The doctor just told us that he is confident that Jesse will be eating, drinking, talking all on his own in the next two weeks. Barring any setbacks he could be at RIC by the end of this week.
From “how the heck is this kid alive?” to breathing on his own and moving his right arm about 3 inches and beginning to twitch his left arm in three weeks – he continues to prove he’s the toughest guy in the world. How much function will he gain is still to be determined. He has no movement in his fingers and the only strength he has is in his shoulders. The doctors at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago will only accept him and help him “get the most function possible on what he can control” – they are not in business to make any promises or guarantees – only help him the best they can and we appreciate that and hope for the best.
Thanks for all your support – please keep it coming, we know your prayers and support are helping him a great deal. – Love to all of you – Dave Sternberg and Family
Update November 13:
Jesse got moved to the 7th floor at RIC, the floor dedicated to only SCI patients. He is continuing to fight an unidentified infection and the doctors chose to have him fight it with a continous fever and no antibiotics until they can figure out exactly what is causing it. So he’s sick and weak and in pain and true to his form, he wants to do rehab!
Jesse continues to live up to the Toughest Guy in the World title and might get Most Determined added to that! Please continue to pray for his health and recovery. Please look at the other pages on this site for how you can help him in his recovery. Jesse is already a miracle for surviving his injury, now he’s working on his next miracle and needs your help.