Medical Bills for Drew Blalock

On October 20th, our Drewby was involved in a horrible accident. From what we know at this time, a firearm inadvertently fired while he was trying to put it away. He was struck in the face with the bullet. He was able to call 911, but, because of the injury, was not able to communicate with first responders. He was able to wake a roommate up who was then able to assist in guiding the paramedics to his apartment. When Drew arrived to the hospital he was immediately rushed to surgery to make initial repairs and stabilize him.

Drew has a long road ahead of him in his recovery process and all prayers are greatly appreciated and needed.

Details of the damage and medical needs:

The nasal bone and part of the frontal bone (closest to his eyebrows), lacrimal bone, and ethmoid bone (orbital plate) of Drew's skull were fractured beyond repair in the accident. These were reconstructed with titanium mesh and a piece of bone harvested from the Parietal bone (back/middle) of Drew's skull. The part around the eyes, traditionally referred to as the "orbital bones" were intact but the left one was fractured. The left eye is somewhat sunken (only we could tell that) and has dropped a little. That can be from a couple of things, some remaining pressure from the swelling of that eye or part of the natural fat in the face was vaporized in the blast, leading to a lack of support. This drop has misaligned his eyes from what they were before, so he's having some double vision right now. That may resolve on its own, or we may need a surgery in the future. First step is to wait for the additional swelling to subside and then reassess the situation. Prayers for natural resolution and clear vision. The prayer for eyesight were hugely successful so we believe in the power of these prayers.

His mandible was broken in the middle and the top of his mouth was broken at the nasal spine. Those injuries got titanium plates, titanium bars, screws, and wires to pull them back together. This work was unreal as you cannot tell that part of his face was damaged.

His palate (roof of his mouth) and the floor of his mouth were decimated.

The floor was pieced together using what was left of the remaining tissue. This is where the fistula has developed that Allison referred to in an earlier post. This was bound to happen as they really could only sew what they could together and hope (pray) that it came together properly. For the most part, this has happened unbelievably well, however, this will need a small surgery to correct where a gap or misdirected salivary gland has "declared" itself to be a problem, hopefully next week as they cannot perform surgery without a good airway and we cannot remove the trach as its currently the only guaranteed airway. This will determine the pace for the trach removal.

His tongue had a hole in it and was torn up pretty bad, but, it was largely intact. The controlling muscles were also very much intact. They are all sewn up, the swelling is down, and now as we begin trying to speak, the work to relearn speech with everything in his mouth feeling different begins.

The palate (palatine bone and the inside the teeth part of the maxilla) was destroyed so the doctors used some fat and tissue from Drew's tummy tucked into the void to eliminate a direct pass through to his reconstructed nasal cavity. This will require one of three options for repair. 1) a plastic appliance (similar to a retainer) that will be placed into the area to close it off from exposure. Obviously, the least invasive, but the one with a lifetime of maintenance and interference. 2) use gum material and stretch and sew into place OR sew the tongue to the roof of his mouth and then separate the infused part from the rest of the tongue after it takes as a graft. This gives me the willies just thinking about it, not to mention the impact of this on his day-to-day when it occurs. 3) The most invasive, but, the highest probability of normal use and longterm viability, a graft from his wrist area will be harvested with the associated blood vessels. The harvested skin will fill the area and then the blood vessels will be attached to sources in the mouth to provide blood to the graft. This can wait as it will be done after we leave the hospital so it may be that we go with #1 for the next month and then schedule #2/#3 for thereafter. Prayers for guidance and wisdom are appreciated and needed.

Drew lost one of his top teeth and three of the bottom teeth were broken. The rest are in very good shape and seem to be very well aligned.

His chin down to his throat area remained intact and was sewn together, but we are still watching for thermal injury to this area and the associated musculature.

So, as we hinted at in the past, there’s a lot to deal with. Drew is doing exceptionally well. God has helped Allison and I stay positive and know that we have no control beyond our prayers and love for Him and our boy. God is in this place and in these people. We are blessed beyond our understanding.

NOTE: The details were produced/reconstructed from memory and may not be anatomically 100% correct. It is directionally correct so those of you that know of these things, please give me a bit of a pass.

As you can imagine, even with medical coverage, we will still have to bear a heavy burden to cover the out of pocket portions of the costs. Please pray for us and if you can, donate. Any little bit helps. If you can't, prayers are very helpful.

Thank you!