Updates on Kimber/TekDiveGirl

[Missdirected]

UPDATE

Kimber is awake and responsive. She is still heavily sedated for pain. They are hoping to move her from critical care today to intensive :jump:

Physical Therapy should begin soon. Tek/Kimber has done pt before, so lets stay positive and hope she flies through

I think we all know she is one heck of a determined person. Definitely a fighter.

*Hope no one misses this update

You can also find and reply to this post in "Well Wishes for Kimber/TekDiveGirl" http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=144994

[Missdirected]

Kimber/Tek started PT today which is going really well. They are working on "re-wiring" her hands and legs. She is frustrated and having no problem letting people know about it I think that sounds like somebody we know :14:

[Missdirected]

One of our own went to see Kimber today. All of her children have been by her side. She is still working on "re-wiring" her arms and legs. Obviously, her brain has suffered some injury. She is now able to sit up for a couple of hours a day and has stood once, with much assistance. As was said before, she is talking and responding really, really well. Physical therapy is a continuing must to get her limbs functioning again.

She looks really well today and has come such a long way in such a short amount of time - a testament to her inner strength.


I still do not know exactly what happened that day that caused her this trauma. I just know her original prognosis was grave but she is alive and is working her way back!

[HowardE]

I thought this should go here too

A remarkable woman ..

I visited Kimber today.

A friend that had spend the night with Kimber, so she wouldn't be alone, was on her way out when I arrived.
Kimber awoke and I let her know I was the morning shift. They brought her breakfast which I fed to her. I told her I may as well flick spoonfuls at her from across the room, for all the skill I was showing.

It was a good visit and I spent the better part of 2 hrs talking with her, making her laugh .. Oh what a beautiful sound

A remarkable woman indeed

[HowardE]

Here's another update from someone who visited Kimber

After spending the last two nights at the hospital with Kimber, I can tell you that her sense of humor hasn't gone anywhere...she had great concern about the appearance of her booty until she realized it was her pillow she was touching and then had me send Scuba Sue a pic of her wash clothe Woody....

When I arrived at the hospital tonight at about 9:30 pm, I walked into her room to see her trying to lean forward and grimmacing..when I asked her what she was doing she stopped and said, "just trying to get out of bed...." she has a gift for redirecting her frustration into determination.

Kimber, I know you will be reading these posts soon....you are a great sister! Love ya, tj

[Missdirected]

UPDATE FROM KIMBER/TEK AND SUE

On Saturday June 3rd, 2006, Kimberly Thurman was diving on the wreck of the Hogan off Point Loma in San Diego off the dive boat Lois Ann. After her second dive, she surfaced and made her way on to the dive platform and informed the crew she was not feeling well.

The crew of the Lois Ann got her onto the deck and began immediate first aid treatment. She was transferred to primary care within an hour or so of the incident and then taken to a hospital for evaluation, medical care, and treatment.

Since then she has remained in the hospital moving from Critical Care to Intensive Care and will now be moved to a Rehabilitation center. She suffered a serious case of Arterial Gas Embolism. Her condition the first 10 days was critical and grave. However, she has responded remarkably well to treatment and is alive, well, and progressing. The physical therapy will take many months, as her brain has to learn how to re-do many things. Miraculously, she is awake, talking up a storm, laughing, and is on the road to healing.

We are grateful for the speed and professionalism that was shown by all those involved in her rapid and speedy rescue and transport to higher medical help, and know that was a critical part of her survival.

At this time we do not know the cause of the embolism, hopefully some future tests will help find that out.

In the meantime, we are concentrating on helping her learn to do all the basic functions that we all take for granted. We are caring for her children during this difficult time as well. It will be a long journey to recovery, but we are confident that she will be home with her family and children soon.

We appreciate all the well wishes and the contributions to Kimberly Thurman Recovery Assistance Fund. This fund was established by her friends to help with the many day to day bills that are not covered by insurance. All help is greatly appreciated, as she will not be able to work for at the least a few more months. Info on how to make contributions to her recovery fund can be found at http://www.scubaboard.com/forumdisplay.php?f=507

As we have more updates on her condition and progress we will have them posted to the appropriate web boards.

Thank you again for all of your prayers, good wishes, and concern for our friend Kimber.

Sincerely,

Sue Schimka (Kimber's Best Friend)

Note: The previous was okayed by Kimber/Tek herself

:jump:

From Kimber herself this is going to be a long road so lets all dig deep and get her back to where she needs to be!

[Missdirected]

Hi all. Just wanted to let you know she is now at the rehabilitation center. I have the address, if anyone would like to send a card or something. Just pm me.

I have it that she was going to try and get on tonight tonight but couldn't. Something with her card. Hopefully soon.

And this from D_B:

I saw Kimber today, she is in rehab and doing well.

She was dressed and sitting in a chair when I arrived, a sign that she is getting stronger. She said she felt good but very tired.

Her attitude, her spirit, her demeaner, are positive and forcefull and bode well for her recovery.

She said she will be posting soon

A great visit that left me smiling once again.

Today .......... 3 hours of therapy and more yet to come

Tomorrow ... Kicking Butt

Day After ... Taking Names

:jump:

[HowardE]

This message was e-mailed to us this morning... It is FROM KIMBER!!!

Hi Girls and Guys,

Yes, this is me Kimber. With the help of my dear friend Sue Schimka I am putting out this statement for you all. First let me thank you all for all the prayers and good wishes you have been sending my way. I sure do need it. In the past you know I have always been very forthcoming about things in my life both good and bad and sometimes even with the best of intentions people mix things up and get the wrong message. So I hope with this note I can set some things straight for you all and help ease your minds and questions.

On June 3rd I was diving off the Lois Ann on the wreck of the Hogan. It was a great day with lots of fun people on board. We had not been to the Hogan in a very long time and it was just great to be out there. For the 4th we were to go to the Yukon to place a plaque on the wreck in memory of our friend Steve Donathan who died last year. Anyway, I had done a good first dive and then with a nice surface interval did a second dive. I had plenty of gas, visibility was very good, and everyone underwater was in clear contact and communication with each other. I got a chance to look around and have a "fun dive". I remember seeing Joel cruise by me on his "war pony". As I was heading along the trail line, that Tyler left on the bottom back to the shot line, we exchanged hand signals and he told me he was doing a sweep of the wreck to make sure everyone was off it.

I made my ascent with the rest of the group and completed my stops. After I completed my last deco stop, I indicated to one of the other divers that I was cold, and so I surfaced. I surfaced and I went to the back of the boat and asked them to help me get out of my gear because I didn't feel well. I remember being on the police boat and Eric telling me to hang on. I have no recollection of anything after that until I was taken off the respirator last week.

They tell me it was pretty frightening dealing with me. On the deck of the boat Joel got the entire crew organized and everyone back on board and off the site in record time, something like 5 minutes or so. Bob and Eric worked on me keeping me alive, with oxygen and CPR and monitoring my vitals as best as possible. Capt Carl and Joel dealt with getting the evacuation done. (I had been taught about evacuations but never actually did one myself, I can only imagine how hard it was for all these people to be taking care of me during this time.) They tell me that when the helicopter showed up we were just too close to shore and I was too critical to make good use of it so I was transferred to the SD Fire rescue boat. Joel went with me with all the info to the ambulance and the hospital. I recall them telling me it was something like an hour and 15 minutes. That's Pink Speed Time in my book! It took Joel at the hospital a few hours to get a hold of my Mom who then stepped in with the hospital. I am sure it was not easy for any of her. It sure wasn't easy for me either!

I understand that on the boat deck I had something like 6 or 7 seizures, a pulse rate of 60 or less, and then I had few more seizures in the SD boat and more in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Once in the ER they worked on me hard, getting me intubated, catheterized, and tried to get me stable enough for treatments. I've had CT scans, EEGs, EKGs, Hyperbaric treatments and more tests than I can even recall. At one point they tell me I was on a dialysis machine to help my kidneys process and reduce the swelling of my body and brain.

I know you have all been screaming for information and you may have beaten up some of the crew and people on board that day for not putting information out about me. Guys, I was in CRITICAL condition. They were not sure exactly what was wrong with me or if I was going to live or die or what state I would be in if I did live. My mother who I love so much, told Joel to keep a lid on this until such time as information needed to go out. She did not know what she had on her hands. She felt that she needed to protect my children from finding out about things they did not need to know. Only very close people were kept in the loop on my moment-to-moment changes, progress, and setbacks. It's been hard for all of them watching and hearing about me and I love them all. Finally after a few days they let Joel put out a single statement about me, but that was it, and that is just fine with me. Mom's can be overprotective sometimes and I am sure she was just scared and wanting to protect me and my children.

So where we are at now is this. They tell me I had an arterial gas embolism, (AGE). We don't exactly know why yet, they will do some more tests later after the swelling is all gone. Survival rate of a gas embolism is pretty low, I seem to be a lucky case. The care that I have been getting has been great. The hospital (and you know how much I don't like those) have been caring for me round the clock. Last week after they took me off the respirator, no one was sure if I would wake up but I did. Amazing what Pink Power can do!

They finally moved me yesterday to a new facility closer to my home where I started rehabilitation today. I don't know how long it will
take for me to get out of this place but for now it has to turn into my home. I'm awake, I can talk and laugh and cry. I can see my children, my mom, my aunt, and my friends who come by. But, I get tired easily, I am on a lot of medications, I can't hold a phone yet, or type, feed myself, or even go to the bathroom myself. I can move my hands a bit and grip things, but not well. I can move my right leg, and with some help I have been able to stand and can sit up by myself. I tried to get out of bed the other night but that did not work too well. I get frustrated that the things I want to do I just can't. I hope to do it in some time. Little steps each day, but i'm tough and i'm gonna do it, but I am scared. Some of you know I train horses, so for now I'm just like a little horse learning how to
take little steps one at a time.

My dear friend's Sue and TJ have been visting me and staying with me as often as they can and my Mom calls them my "Sisters" now. I'm glad I have them so close and available to me. I know it's a burden for them as they have their own lives and families as well. I'm glad to have everyone who has come to help. I know my friend Tracy has set up a Recovery Fund website for me and my kids and I'm grateful for that, all your help is greatly appreciated, and the guys who run the Scuba Board and Deco Stop have been handling all the inquiries as best as possible. I'm sorry that you all kinda felt that there was a whitewash being put on this, there wasn't, what they all did about information is just fine with me. At this time I just want to get better. The crew, Capt Carl, Joel, Bob, Eric, Chad, Tyler, and all the others saved me. I am alive today because of everything they did and I love them all. Whatever they did and however they did it was what allows me to be alive today. You all need to know that they saved my life! My Mom, My Aunt, Sue, and TJ deal with me on a daily basis and I love them all too. I can only imagine how hard it's been for all of them these past few weeks. But they are all tough too and I know they will all be fine as well.

So in the meantime I am going to get working on getting better. As I have more progress reports Sue will put them out for me. She will cross post them to the web boards and to the website that Tracy and Howard set up. http://www.tekdivegirl.org Once I am able to use my hands again and type I will scream for my laptop and get talking with you all again. Please continue with your prayers for me. I need them. And I do greatly appreciate all you are doing with the recovery fund, that's really kind of you all to chip in there.

Life is fragile, life is precious. My kids need me to get better and come home so that's my focus now. If you want to get a message to me just send it to Sue and she will print it out and read it to me but don't expect her to be my secretary and send replies. I need her help for other things now.

Love to you all.

Kimber

[Missdirected]

A post from Kimber/Tek:

An update from rehab...was coming tonight but my internet connection dropped and I lost my post...that said, I'm going to bed now because I have long days ahead of me. I just wanted to thank you all for your well wishes, and your kindness and your prayers...but now I must sleep. Kimber

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread...=145921&page=5 The URL will take you to the thread she posted in.

[Missdirected]

I personally have been holding my breath on her walking again. I am breathing a little, just a little, easier now after this update:

I just got back from another visit with that incredible woman, Kimber.
I did not go on Friday and in that time since, she ... can stay standing with minor assistance! .. can walk assisted between the parallel bars! .. can scratch her nose! (must be wonderful to be able to do that finally) ... can move her right arm! .. can move her left leg!
It's just amazing what can happen in a single day
She is in good spirits, smiling and laughing easily and thanks all of you for the support you give to her.
Kimber ... Kicking Butt and Taking Names ... you go girl! :jump:
DB

For the many of you that are holding your breath, thank you and I hope this brings a small sigh of relief to you as well.