darkside
10-23-2006, 10:45 AM
This is more for the oldschool folks, but Jay (owner of EWR bikes, who used to be a big supporter of trials in the US) found himself in the hospital recently. Sounds like he is coming around, but not out of the woods yet. Think positive for him.
From hcore.net by way of Ridemonkey:
On Monday October 16 Jay became ill with a high fever and headache and on Tuesday night was hospitalized for an unknown illness. The illness progressed rapidly and according to his doctors is life threatening. He remains in critical condition in the ICU at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and is on life support systems. At this point his diagnosis has not been firmly established. The doctors suspect viral encephalitis, possibly the result of an insect bite and it is a great mystery as to how such a rapid onset and debilitating sickness could attack such a young and healthy man so quickly. His blood is being tested at outside labs and it may take days for results to influence the treatment. Please share this information with any of his friends so that we can all pray for his soonest recovery. Please don't call my cell number as I am in the hospital with him and trying to keep the phone for emergencies only. I will update you all as soon as I know something further. Val
Many of you know Jay DeJesus from the cycling industry. Two days ago, Jay was
admitted to the hospital and the following is an update on his condition.
Jay is in the ICU at Wilkes Barre General Hospital, Wilkes Barre, Pa. The
diagnosis today is that he has bacterial meningitis possibly caused by a tear in
his intestines that leaked into his spinal fluid They are treating the
bacteria with antibiotics but he is still in very critical condition and on life
support systems. As of right now he has a 50/50 chance, so please keep him in
your prayers.
Mark and I have started a fund to help Jay with his expenses. Anyone who wants
to help out would be greatly appreciated. Contact Mark or Sue. 602-7433 or
760-5559
Mark & Susan
An update from Val (gf)
Thanks so much to everyone for all the thoughts, prayers and support. Jay held steady through the night last night and his doctors have said they are hopeful it is a good step in the right direction. He is firmly diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and has suffered a life threatening septic shock. They have identified and now eradicated the bacteria from his body but are still trying to find out the exact cause and have ruled out injury/rupture to the intestine after MRI scans. They saw something to indicate the possibility he may have a liver abscess (total freak occurence) and this could be the source, but cannot give him radioactive dyes until he improves a bit more. At that point hopefully they can get a picture and eliminate any cause of reinfection later.
He is still on a ventilator and full life support care, including blood pressure support meds and platelets/plasma. They are going to try to start weaning him off blood pressure meds and hopefully sedative and ventilator over the next few days to a week. Improvements can be slow at this point and he is still very sick and it is touch and go. Please keep praying. He is heavily sedated so as not to move the tubes in his throat and cause bleeding there, or disrupt the many lines into his circulatory system including a subclavian catheter. For this reason his family asks his friends from this point until further notice to please respect the family-only policy at the ICU and not try to visit yet. His immune system is so weakened and compromised it is not worth the risk of bringing in an outside germ, nor is it productive to the nurses and staff who are watching him and monitoring machines surrounding him at all times and are uncomfortable when their view is disrupted by people standing in the line of sight and around the bedside.
The ICU staff has asked us in addition to inform friends not to call the ICU as the nurses were bombarded last night with calls and were disrupted from their routine in fielding those calls. Again, I will keep Nora Hottenstein, Mark and Sue Farrell, Rob Lichtenwalner and Joe Wychock updated with phone calls so you can call them and I will continue to try to send emails as soon as I have news. If you feel you must visit, Jay's family and I are camped out in the waiting room at the ICU, but please, don't go into the ICU.
Thanks again, and please keep sending the positive healing karma at Jay. I know he will be overwhelmed to know how many people care.
Val
Good news finally! I don't know if I should attribute the absolute miraculous following report to the work of God and all your prayers and thoughts, the constant presence of family and loved ones, or the incredible healing vibe from a cycling physician. You decide.
Here are the facts:
It all started to go uphill when Dr. Bill Hottenstein arrived at 7:30 am this morning and laid the healing hands on our boy. I can't believe I can finally write this but Jay is awake, coherent and already writing notes demanding his favorite foods, body rubs and other pampering activities from the female nurses. They started weaning him off the supportive meds after Dr. Bill's visit, and Bill warned us the improvements could be in "baby steps" and it might take days before we could wake him up and remove the ventilator.
To the absolute surprise of his family, the ICU staff and myself, he responded so well that they got him off the support meds, and by this afternoon were able to focus on lowering sedation and waking him. After a long 5-day vigil it seems surreal. I just left him (with his okay) to come home and get a good night's sleep. Although very weak and still sick, his systems are getting close to normal, he is completely coherent and resting.
The plan is to remove the ventilator tomorrow morning and he is anxious to get the tubes out and start working his way out of the sickhouse. They are still going to do some more tests as they cannot confirm the source of the bacteria and it is still a mystery, one which would be best solved so he doesn't reinfect himself once the antibiotics are completely stopped. So that's it.
Thank God because I don't think I could have handled another day of worrying and stress without a straitjacket. People in my presence who said the wrong thing would be putting themselves at great risk to have their ear bitten off or stabbed with a pencil or something. I was considering pharmaceutical help for myself before the events of this afternoon.
Please, keep the prayers coming for Jay because he is still in the hospital and the ventilator is still on and we can't relax until he gets home. Oh, by the way, I told him Budji was teaching his mountain bike clinic that was scheduled for today and they had to put the restraints back on his arms.
Thanks everyone!!!
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168343
http://www.hcor.net/postp335816.html#335816
From hcore.net by way of Ridemonkey:
On Monday October 16 Jay became ill with a high fever and headache and on Tuesday night was hospitalized for an unknown illness. The illness progressed rapidly and according to his doctors is life threatening. He remains in critical condition in the ICU at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and is on life support systems. At this point his diagnosis has not been firmly established. The doctors suspect viral encephalitis, possibly the result of an insect bite and it is a great mystery as to how such a rapid onset and debilitating sickness could attack such a young and healthy man so quickly. His blood is being tested at outside labs and it may take days for results to influence the treatment. Please share this information with any of his friends so that we can all pray for his soonest recovery. Please don't call my cell number as I am in the hospital with him and trying to keep the phone for emergencies only. I will update you all as soon as I know something further. Val
Many of you know Jay DeJesus from the cycling industry. Two days ago, Jay was
admitted to the hospital and the following is an update on his condition.
Jay is in the ICU at Wilkes Barre General Hospital, Wilkes Barre, Pa. The
diagnosis today is that he has bacterial meningitis possibly caused by a tear in
his intestines that leaked into his spinal fluid They are treating the
bacteria with antibiotics but he is still in very critical condition and on life
support systems. As of right now he has a 50/50 chance, so please keep him in
your prayers.
Mark and I have started a fund to help Jay with his expenses. Anyone who wants
to help out would be greatly appreciated. Contact Mark or Sue. 602-7433 or
760-5559
Mark & Susan
An update from Val (gf)
Thanks so much to everyone for all the thoughts, prayers and support. Jay held steady through the night last night and his doctors have said they are hopeful it is a good step in the right direction. He is firmly diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and has suffered a life threatening septic shock. They have identified and now eradicated the bacteria from his body but are still trying to find out the exact cause and have ruled out injury/rupture to the intestine after MRI scans. They saw something to indicate the possibility he may have a liver abscess (total freak occurence) and this could be the source, but cannot give him radioactive dyes until he improves a bit more. At that point hopefully they can get a picture and eliminate any cause of reinfection later.
He is still on a ventilator and full life support care, including blood pressure support meds and platelets/plasma. They are going to try to start weaning him off blood pressure meds and hopefully sedative and ventilator over the next few days to a week. Improvements can be slow at this point and he is still very sick and it is touch and go. Please keep praying. He is heavily sedated so as not to move the tubes in his throat and cause bleeding there, or disrupt the many lines into his circulatory system including a subclavian catheter. For this reason his family asks his friends from this point until further notice to please respect the family-only policy at the ICU and not try to visit yet. His immune system is so weakened and compromised it is not worth the risk of bringing in an outside germ, nor is it productive to the nurses and staff who are watching him and monitoring machines surrounding him at all times and are uncomfortable when their view is disrupted by people standing in the line of sight and around the bedside.
The ICU staff has asked us in addition to inform friends not to call the ICU as the nurses were bombarded last night with calls and were disrupted from their routine in fielding those calls. Again, I will keep Nora Hottenstein, Mark and Sue Farrell, Rob Lichtenwalner and Joe Wychock updated with phone calls so you can call them and I will continue to try to send emails as soon as I have news. If you feel you must visit, Jay's family and I are camped out in the waiting room at the ICU, but please, don't go into the ICU.
Thanks again, and please keep sending the positive healing karma at Jay. I know he will be overwhelmed to know how many people care.
Val
Good news finally! I don't know if I should attribute the absolute miraculous following report to the work of God and all your prayers and thoughts, the constant presence of family and loved ones, or the incredible healing vibe from a cycling physician. You decide.
Here are the facts:
It all started to go uphill when Dr. Bill Hottenstein arrived at 7:30 am this morning and laid the healing hands on our boy. I can't believe I can finally write this but Jay is awake, coherent and already writing notes demanding his favorite foods, body rubs and other pampering activities from the female nurses. They started weaning him off the supportive meds after Dr. Bill's visit, and Bill warned us the improvements could be in "baby steps" and it might take days before we could wake him up and remove the ventilator.
To the absolute surprise of his family, the ICU staff and myself, he responded so well that they got him off the support meds, and by this afternoon were able to focus on lowering sedation and waking him. After a long 5-day vigil it seems surreal. I just left him (with his okay) to come home and get a good night's sleep. Although very weak and still sick, his systems are getting close to normal, he is completely coherent and resting.
The plan is to remove the ventilator tomorrow morning and he is anxious to get the tubes out and start working his way out of the sickhouse. They are still going to do some more tests as they cannot confirm the source of the bacteria and it is still a mystery, one which would be best solved so he doesn't reinfect himself once the antibiotics are completely stopped. So that's it.
Thank God because I don't think I could have handled another day of worrying and stress without a straitjacket. People in my presence who said the wrong thing would be putting themselves at great risk to have their ear bitten off or stabbed with a pencil or something. I was considering pharmaceutical help for myself before the events of this afternoon.
Please, keep the prayers coming for Jay because he is still in the hospital and the ventilator is still on and we can't relax until he gets home. Oh, by the way, I told him Budji was teaching his mountain bike clinic that was scheduled for today and they had to put the restraints back on his arms.
Thanks everyone!!!
http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168343
http://www.hcor.net/postp335816.html#335816