Background Information

On the afternoon of January 7, 2004, Stephanie and a friend, Chris, left Kingsville, Texas, in Stephanie's 1993 Mercury Topaz and headed for Colorado Springs, Colorado. After approximately 17 hours on the road and having crossed the Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado state lines, he fell asleep at the wheel. The vehicle swerved for some time, finally crossing the center line at the 48 mile marker on Colorado Hwy 287 at 9:55 a.m. on January 8. Once in the on-coming lane and after cresting a slight hill, the Topaz collided head-on with an on-coming 18-wheel semi-truck.

The driver of the semi tried everything he could to avoid the accident but was unable. He did, however, steer as far to the left as he could, causing the passenger side of both vehicles to impact, avoiding a complete head-on collision.  The car came to rest in the field adjacent to the south-bound side of the road, and the semi in the field adjacent to the north-bound side of the road. (Click here to see pictures of the accident scene.)

Both Stephanie and Chris were both thrown approximately 30 feet from the car. Stephanie had on only the automatic shoulder belt and not the manual lap belts and her seat (the passenger's) had been reclined. Stephanie was unconscious at the scene and both were taken by ambulance to a hospital in Springfield, Colorado, then life-flighted to Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Colorado.

Chris shattered his right femur and tore the quad muscle surrounding it, broke his knee cap, broke his fibula and shattered his ankle, tore ligaments in the opposing knee, bruised his lungs, fractured his cheek bone, nose, and some cranial bones in addition to having a concussion. He underwent surgery to repair the femur (which now has a rod and pins), kneecap (a pin and wire to repair and reattach it), and lower leg/ankle (multiple pins). He underwent a an additional surgery on March 31 to remove the pins in his ankle and anticipates surgery on his left knee sometime in the future.

Stephanie, had a burst fracture of her L5 lumbar, 80% of which blew into her spinal cord, spinal cord damage resulting from the burst fragments, fractured L1-L4 lumbars, fractured pelvis in 3 places, fractured the ball on her right hip and blew out the right hip socket, broke both the tibia and fibula in her left leg and tore the tendons that attach that leg to her foot, broke and fractured bones in both feet (2 metatarsals in each foot), fractured the 4th metacarpal (ring finger bone) in her left hand, had road rash on her left forearm and hand, lower spine, right thigh and forehead, received six stitches on her chin, and suffered a concussion (subdural hematoma) and a traumatic brain injury.

Chris was admitted into surgery upon arrival and placed in ICU (the Critical Care Unit) at Swedish Medical Center for approximately 4 days, then moved to the multi-trauma unit followed by Swedish's in-house rehabilitation unit. He was discharged on February 2 and is pursuing out-patient physical therapy in his home town. He will need to visit an oral surgeon for further treatment of his facial fractures and his orthodontist for repair of a permanent retainer and is having difficulties with his short term memory.

Stephanie was placed in ICU upon her arrival at Swedish Medical Center and remained there on a ventilator and under heavy sedation until she was stable enough to undergo surgery. Surgery took place on January 16-17 (12 hours) and she now has two titanium rods in her spine running from L4 through L5 to her sacrum with 8 pins holding the structure together and her own crushed bone and BMP to trick the body into growing new bone to fuse the structure solid, a metal plate to reform the hip socket with seven pins, and two pins to rejoin the tibia and fibula to the ankle/tendon in her left leg. On January 19 she was transferred out of ICU to the multi-trauma unit.

On January 29 Stephanie was transferred by private plane to a neurological rehabilitation facility in Austin. She remained at this facility until February 24, at which time she will returned home for continued healing and in-home therapy. She was able to leave her wheelchair and begin outpatient therapy on April 5. Spinal cord damage had seemed to affect her small intestine functioning but has resolved over time. It also affect the dorsal flexion of her feet, which she is overcoming with physical therapy. She was successfully weaned off of pain medications by mid-April.

Until March 12 Stephanie was non-weight bearing on both legs (she could not walk or stand), however she must wear a back brace anytime she is sitting up beyond 30 degrees for 9-12 months. Her neurological injuries have made amazing progress, though there remains some minor deficiencies in short term memory that she is working on, and the extent of her spinal cord damage may remain unknown until she is fully functional without her brace.

God was most certainly watching over Stephanie and Chris at the time of the accident and He surely has a wonderful plan in mind for their remaining days. Thank you for your calls and emails, and especially your prayers. This is certainly a parent's worst nightmare but we know that we have a faithful and loving Father and He will only give us what we can handle. We also know that we are powerless without Him and He has certainly been our guide these past few weeks.

Thank you, again, for your continued support, encouragement, and prayers. Your friendship has been a blessing beyond comparison.

Bill & Heather Adair