We just found out that Eric will need another surgery next week that will require a lot of blood from the blood bank. His blood type is A+. If you have a compatible blood type and are willing to make the trip to Santa Rosa, you are welcome to donate blood directly to Eric next week. Remember that you can only donate blood every 6 weeks, so if you are able and willing to donate at the Santa Rosa Memorial, please hold off until we have more information.

CenterBeam is also hosting a Blood Drive for Eric in San Jose. If you are in San Jose and can make this time, please register and join us this Friday. Here is the info:
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CenterBeam Blood Drive in Honor of Eric Arnold
Friday May 1, 2009
9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
For our friend and colleague Eric…

You will be able to make your appointment starting tomorrow at 9 am for Friday
To make an appointment
Log onto http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/
Click on "Find a Blood Drive"
Under "Search by Sponsor City" enter "San Jose" and click on the date of the drive. Follow the prompts to schedule your appointment.

The appointment takes a total of 30 minutes from start to finish.

Bring Photo ID

Requirements for donating:

• Be at least 17 years of age
• Weigh at least 110 lbs
• Be free of cold and flu symptoms
• Eat before donating & drink lots of water

Thanks!
Cheryl Adams
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Today was a long day and a lot was accomplished. Eric was fitted for his upper body cast which will help support his back and allow him to sit up in the days to come. They did the additional scans and x-rays we talked about yesterday, however we don't have the results yet. Eric's mood and level of alertness was much improved today. By 6 pm Eric had again been poked and prodded all day and was exhausted so we all left him alone to rest. The good news was that he was able to sleep last night and that helped him through today. We were able to start all of the paper work for his transfer to Santa Clara, which has one of the best spine rehab programs in the country. We hope to know by the next update tomorrow how long Eric will be in Santa Rosa and when he will be able to transfer to Santa Clara.

There have been many people who have been asking if they can do anything or donate money or help in any way. For those of you in San Jose, there will be blood drive we are doing in Eric's honor this coming Friday. I will have the specifics for you in tomorrows post... please check back. Those of you who are looking to provide financial support, hold tight as we are working on setting up one or more fund-raisers for Eric and we will provide the details here.

I want to thank you all personally for all of the support and outreach I have been seeing for Eric. It is comforting to his family to know that so many people care for Eric. Please keep the warm thoughts coming.

Many of you have asked for the address of the Hospital in Santa Rosa so that you can send cards, here it is, but please remember that Eric needs his rest and the family is asking visitors to wait until Eric feels he is ready for people to come by.

Eric Arnold, Room 267
c/o Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital
1165 Montgomery Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95405

The Doctor plans on doing a scan on Eric, hopefully tomorrow, to assess the outcome of the surgeries. We will know more and can send out an update after we get the results of that scan.

We really appreciate all of you respecting Eric’s wishes to limit visitors to his family right now. He has been poked and prodded throughout the day with all kinds of tests… as a result he has not slept a wink all day and was exhausted and in need of sleep. There were no visitors and the family stayed out of his room tonight which will give him the opportunity for the much needed rest. I will let you know as soon as Eric tells us he is ready for visitors.

Many people have asked about sending flowers, unfortunately the ICU does not accept any flowers. I think any cards you can send would be great and something Eric would love.

We have found an update about the blood drive; unfortunately there is no longer any kind of credit system. However when you donate blood you can request that it is in honor Eric Arnold and they will give you a donor card to that effect. Please send me an email with your name as we will create donor cards and place them in Eric’s room.

Hello Everyone, I just visited with Eric and he is awake but exhausted, so he is in and out of sleep. There are a lot of people who want to see him and have asked to come visit; so I asked Eric how he felt and if he was up for visitors. He has asked that for the next couple of days the visits be limited to a short list of folks including his family and a couple of close friends. He has given me his short list and I will reach out to those folks to let them know they are on the list.

For everyone else, please respect Eric’s wishes as we are all here to support him. I will continue to provide updates to everyone so you are not left in the dark. Please know that Eric very much appreciates the love and support you are all sending his way and take no offense in his request.

All, I was just asked by the Hospital if we can reduc the calls coming in for Eric. There are a lot of people who love Eric and the Hospital Staff are being inundated by calls… Please know that I will be updating you as I have information and the Hospital Staff will be routing all communications and status through me.

As for visitation, they would like to have no visitors between the hours of 5-6 AM and PM as that is when the shift changes are.

Thanks for your support.

I know a lot of you are waiting for an update and I decided it would be easiest to send an email to all rather than trying to call you all... There are a lot of people supporting Eric and having him in their hearts and thoughts. He needs your positive thoughts and energy now more than ever. He just came out of an all day surgery and Dr. Ikebaum gave us this update...

The surgery was long and very difficult as the damage to his vertebrae was severe. Two of his vertebrae are shattered and there was a lot of damage to the spinal cord. The Dr. was able to bring his spine into alignment and reconstruct it. There is a rod in his back holding everything in alignment and pinned to the surrounding vertebrae. He also had a collapsed lung and lost a lot of blood. The Dr. said that the surgery went as well as could be expected and that Eric now needed time to recover as it was a long surgery. He will be recovering here in the Santa Rosa Trauma Unit for about a week. There is a good chance that he will need further surgery to remove the shattered bone and add bone grafts. He will likely be transferred the the Santa Clara Trauma Unit once he has recovered and stabilized from the surgeries.

Many of you will ask “what can I do.” Eric needed 9 units of blood through the night and his surgery. We are looking into how we rally to donate blood and make sure the credits go to Eric. Please be ready for us when we figure out the logistics.

According to the Dr., the odds are against him having a complete recovery. That said, all of you that know Eric know that he is an amazingly stubborn and strong individual with a will to beat all the odds. Your thoughts and prayers will go a long way to helping him on this journey to a full recovery; he needs all the positive thought and energy that you can muster.

I’m not sure that it is appropriate for too many visitors right now, but as I know more I will update everyone.