03-17-2003

 This email is to inform you that Robbie had an accident Friday Night/Saturday morning at around 2AM.  He was traveling along the freeway and came upon a car that looked like it had hit the guard rail, spun around and was sitting sideways in the road.  He pulled over onto the shoulder, got out of his car to help a 17 year old girl (Allanah) out of danger she appeared to either be unconscious or passed out.  Leaving his date and her son in the car he ran over to the driver’s side and couldn’t get the door open, so he went to the passenger side to try to help her out.  When she was about half way out, a pickup truck traveling between 60 and 65 miles per hour ran into the rear part of the car. The car spun and clipped Robbie in the chins and throwing him about 15 feet. Allanah was also thrown from her car. The driver of the pickup after coming to a stop backed up drove around the wreckage and fled the scene leaving his front license plate in the wreckage of Allanah's car. They caught the driver a few hours after the accident at his house and arrested him for DWI. Robbie’s date (Carrie) got out of the car... looked and saw Allanah laying on her side and Robbie who was laying face down in his own blood.  She decided Robbie needed more help, so she went to him and rolled him over and held onto him to clear his airway.  Carrie said that Robbie was unconscious and his eyes were open, but glassy.  At this point, she noticed Robbie’s left foot was missing and the other was twisted completely around.  Robbie was taken by helicopter to Parkland Hospital in Dallas.  Allanah was taken by ambulance to Parkland too.

  We were awakened at 4 AM by Carrie’s friend to inform us he was in the hospital.  We then called Karen.  As we were getting ready to leave, a police officer arrived at the house to inform us of the accident.  She painted a very grim picture of Robbie’s outcome.  We picked up Karen and went to Parkland thinking the worst.  We found Robbie was still alive.  They told us that he had a head bleed with blood in the brain, his Aorta had a tear and they were really concerned about these conditions.  They were also concerned that he may of had some abdominal bleeding.  His pelvis has fractures, his hip was broken, his left leg below the knee was gone, and his right leg was severely broken. They were trying to stabilize him.  They were worried about the Aorta first, so they did an angio-gram were they put dye in him and took a look at his heart and abdomen.  They found that his Aorta did have a tear, but it wasn’t life threaten and could be managed with drugs.  His abdomen checked out clear and okay.  They brought him back to the ER to stabilize him more.  They put a wire into his skull to monitor the pressure in his brain.  Then they took him into surgery to clean-up his missing leg and put an external brace on his right leg held on by bolts in the bones.  After the surgery, they indicated that they may have to amputate his leg above the knee at a later time.  He was taken to the ICU, were he remained stable until Sunday morning.  On Sunday morning, they became worried about the pressure building in his head.  That was an issue for most of Sunday.  On Sunday night, they put him into a drug-induced coma to try and release the pressure.  His pressure remained high through Sunday night/Monday morning.  At about noon on Monday morning (today) he was taken into surgery to relieve the high pressure. It was a 3 1/2 hour operation where they removed a bone from the skull on the right side and cleaned up some of the damage to the brain. He is now recovering in the ICU. Now they are going to start taking him off some of the drugs to see if they can wake him up a little to see if there is some brain activity. This may take a few days to a couple of weeks. It sounds encouraging that they are starting to talk days and weeks instead of hours and minutes.

 He has not been conscious since the accident and drugs have been used to keep him that way.  We apologize that we cannot call everyone and to keep everyone informed....  We have been very busy with this and trying to call everyone and answer many phone calls and it is just wearing us out too. But through the marvel of email we can reach more people and conserve our time.  Please send well-wishes through email to us and we will try to send out regular progress reports as much as we can. If you want to visit Robbie at the hospital we encourage you to come by. We cannot promise you will get to see him for obvious reasons (medical necessity takes priority) but everyone so far that have come by have been able to visit with him and see him. Robbie is in the Surgical ICU located on the 2nd floor. To get there go to  the Mcdonalds located on the first floor and take the elevator up one floor to the 2nd floor. Go to the D section and wait outside the door for either Marleen or myself. We will try to get you in to see him.

 As you all know Robbie is a great guy that will help anybody at anytime no matter if you know him or not..... even Alanna. She is also in the ICU just a few doors down fighting for her life too.  He is very strong and we know he can make it through this tragic time... He is in the best of hands at Parkland and we have been so please with the medical help he has received so far there.  Now it is time to get a little sleep. We will keep you advised.........

John and Marleen