Mak's Condition Update - summary of first few days

Since Mak was admitted to Highland Hospital in Oakland he has made continual progress to recovery.

He arrived early Thursday morning barely moving and almost completely non-responsive. Yesterday (Saturday), in a brief moment of consciousness, Mak flipped off his nurse who was trying to move him. So not only is he showing vast improvements in his ability to purposefully respond to stimuli, he is also proving that he has retained a sense of humor.

Currently, Mak remains in a coma. The doctors consistently refer to the Glasgow Coma Scale to describe his condition - it ranges from 3 to 15. 3 = deep unconsciousness; 15 = a normal, fully functional person. Mak arrived at a 4 and has been upgraded to about a 9 through his increasing (often vulgar) responsiveness. He moves around a lot in his bed when his sedatives are low; he has briefly opened his eyes several times now; and we believe he has responded to some verbal commands ("squeeze my hand", etc.). All encouraging signs...

So far all of his organs and limbs seem to be functioning normally. His left eye is fairly swollen (but getting better quickly), he fractured his orbital bone (basically his lower eye socket) and has some other minor scrapes and cuts on his face and left knee. Right now he still has to use a respiratory system to aid in his breathing. He is getting closer to breathing on his own, but just needs more time. Otherwise he looks completely normal. He should easily recover from these injuries. Again, all good news...

Doctors are only worried about his brain. Initial CAT scans reveal that there is no swelling or major hemorrhaging in his head. Also, his brain did not move inside his skull during the impact, which according to doctors is very encouraging news, as this often causes considerable damage. Despite this good news, however, there are some signs of bruising on his frontal lobes (the personality/executive decision area of the brain). Doctors will not be able to determine the consequences of this bruising until Mak regains consciousness and they can perform a more thorough assessment.

The neurosurgeon did report this morning that he believes Mak stands a good chance for recovery.

However, only time will tell what his condition will be when he wakes up. He could open his eyes and be able to speak almost immediately, but there are chances for things to be much worse. The doctors have said that we should all prepare ourselves for a relatively lengthy recovery process. Weeks, months, years - we just don't know yet.

Regardless, we must all stand by Mak and his family. For whatever comes next.