On Sunday, 23 November, my parents were just finishing lunch.  My mom was pretty tired and does not remember much about the events.  My dad says that he was just getting up to put his dishes in the sink and the next thing he knew, he was on the floor.  Mom doesn’t remember him even getting up, just hearing a thud and looking around to see dad on the floor.  She is not a strong woman and called the neighbors to help her get him back on the chair.  They also noticed some blood on his face, but didn’t think much of it. 

When the neighbors arrived, they told mom that she should call 911 – it didn’t look all that good.  Mom really didn’t want to call, but the neighbor insisted.  Once the paramedics arrived, they were fairly sure that he had broken something.  They transported him to the hospital in Crete where it was determined that he broke his femur – at the neck of the femur, just below the ball.  They aslo looked at his head and noticed a large gash – it required 4 staples to close it up.  By this time my brother had gotten to the hospital and made some calls.  He was able to get him in with one of the best surgeons in Lincoln and he was transported to Sait Elizabeth’s in Lincoln.

Upon arrival at St. E’s, dad was admitted and they began to work on working him into Monday’s surgery schedule.  It looked like the surgery would be sometime around 11:30 AM on Monday.  It was closer to noon before they came and got dad for surgery.  The surgery took about 90 minutes during which they removed the ball and neck of the femur on his left leg and replaced it with a new one with a metal rod running down into the femur bone to hold it in place. 

The surgery went well and dad went through recovery better this time.  All of my dad’s siblings have trouble coming out of the anesthetic and this one was not an exception, but it went better than other times. 

Now the work of healing and recovery start!

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