Joseph's Journey

On Monday (4/24), Joseph (13 years old) fell and hit his head, without a helmet, while riding a skateboard. The injury seemed minor at the time and no concussion symptoms were present throughout the day. About 24 hours later, Tuesday night, Jo began to complain of jaw and head pains. Jim and Alex packed up their family and headed to the Maple Valley urgent care. On the way, they noticed that Jo was becoming incoherent. They decided to reroute to the emergency room. When they arrived Jo was in very bad shape. The Doctors immediately diagnosed Jo with a cerebral hematoma. Basically, his brain was bleeding and the pressure on the brain had nowhere to go.

Jo was transported by helicopter to Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma. The neurosurgeon and staff were waiting for his arrival in the operating room. The total time from the ER to the OR was around four hours. His skull was opened during surgery to relief the pressure, which in turn caused brain swelling. Jo was placed in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at Mary Bridge Tacoma and put into a medically induced coma.

As of 5/1/17 Jo has still not opened his eyes and some complications have occurred. We will do our best to keep the site updated to keep all of our friends and family updated. Alex and I will be spending a lot of time bedside so expect the most current info here.


We cannot thank you enough for the tremendous support we've received already. responding to everyone has been very hard on us, this site should give everyone the info they need and please feel free to share widely to anyone who is asking. Anything we post is free to share!