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.