April 30, 2014

Posted by Jeff and Naomi Harm

It has been 25 days since Jake's motorcycle accident and he has spent all 25 days in ICU and is still there. Jake is in stable condition and has still not fully come to- due to all the medicine. He is still pumped up full of pain medication to control the pain from the surgeries of his legs. They have altered his position from totally laying in bed to rotation of sitting in an angled chair. Jake has already been dealing with pneumonia and they have that mostly controlled at this time with antibiotics. When one rests for a long period time in a flat position, phenomena can set it quite quickly.

Jake still has his trache tube in his throat, which does not allow him to speak, but he is breathing on his own. This is good sign which is one step closer of healing and transporting him back to Minnesota. He is still squeezing our hands slightly and trying to track with his eyes on us. Jake has been accepted to be transferred to Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul, MN where they specialize in TBI (traumatic brain injury). He will spend some time at this location to work on the healing of his brain, regaining his speech and motor skills back to the best of his ability. We are told that we will see the greatest improvement of Jake's brain in the first six months, and then smaller gains after that time period.  

We do not know what Jacob's long term outcome will be, but the path we have committed to him as parents is that Jake will recover at Bethesda Hospital, and eventually be transferred to Mayo Clinic or Gundersen in Lacrosse, WI for long-term PT rehabilitation, and then eventually move back in with us long-term in our Brownsville, MN home. We do not know if he ever will be capable of living on his own with his wife- our goal is that he will, but will make every healing step as comfortable as possible and aim for the chosen goal of independence for Jake.

Thank you to many of you for making donations in Jacob Harm's Custodialship honor.
These dollars will go towards his immediate care, transportation costs that are not covered
by insurance, out of pocket expenses not covered by insurance, and long-term home
transitions.

Thank you for supporting our Jacob in this great time of need!