Explorers and Headaches

My brother and my sister's fiance, TJ, both drive Ford Explorers. Each of them had the chance recently to see how the cars held up under pressure.

Two days before Thanksgiving, my brother was driving home southbound on I-25 when someone in an older Z-28-type car lost control and hit him. He was doing somewhere between 55 and 60 at the time of the accident while the other car was going somewhat faster as it attempted to pass my brother on the left. My brother was aware of the car passing him by when all of the sudden the lights from the car started moving erratically as the driver apparently lost control. The car banged into my brother's Explorer at 55+ mph and bounced off it. My brother was pushed toward the right, but was able to maintain control without too much difficulty. The other car then smashed into the concrete dividers on the left seriously damaging the car. The driver fled the scene, and my brother is still waiting to hear from the detective handling the case to find out what the deal is. Apparently, it's not a case of the car being stolen, but it's so far unclear as to where the hell the driver went and why he/she didn't stick around for the cops to come.

But the long and short of the story is that the car survived a side impact collision at highway speeds and allowed the driver to maintain control and thus minimize any injuries. My brother walked away from the incident without any damage to his person. The car suffered a heavy dent to the driver's side rear-door rendereing it inoperable, but the car still drives fine, and my brother is fine.

Two days after Thanksgiving, my sister and her fiance were back in the midwest returning to their apartments in Ann Arbor from his parents' place in Columbus, Ohio. About two and a half miles into their journey, TJ's Explorer hit an icy patch, fishtailed, and went off the road. He lost control of the car as they plunged down a 25 foot ravine - backwards! The car slammed to a halt as it smashed into the cold, icy ground at the bottom of the ravine. The force of the impact blew the windows out of the car except for the windshield and the passenger side front window next to where my sister was seated. Leftovers, school papers, clothing, and other miscellaneous stuff from the car was scattered all through the base of the ravine.

The police were surprised that the two of them walked away from the accident. There is little question that their seatbelts saved their lives. The Explorer was totaled, but the big car seemed to do a pretty good job protecting its passengers. TJ ended up with a small cut on one of his legs as well as a good sized knot on his head. My sister walked away with only a few bruises and sore spots.

Or so it appeared at first. After the accident, my sister began developing very intense headaches - headaches that were so bad they made her throw up. She felt dizzy and nauseous and tired but she couldn't sleep well. After a couple of days as things seemed to be getting worse instead of better, she decided she had better see a doctor. A CAT scan revealed two small cyst-like structures in her brain. Actually one appeared to be on the brain (near the surface, just below the skull) while the other was more acurately described as in the brain - lying a bit deeper and between the two hemispheres. So far, they don't know what they are. An MRI 11 years ago didn't show the spots, so they are new since then. They don't look like what the doctors are used to seeing after a head trauma, but such spots apparently do occassionally turn up from such blows to the head. So, it's really unclear right now as to whether the accident caused these spots or just revealed the spots.

Tentatively, the doctors think they want to go in and remove whatever they are so they can find out what they are. That means that, tentatively, they want to drill a hole or two in my sister's skull. She has a consultation this evening with the neurologists along with the neuro-surgeons during which they will decide what approach they want to take.

So, for now, that's where this story abruptly ends. I'll know more later tonight or tomorrow.

Jonathan 12/09/2002 07:58:00 AM