My sister Emily, came for a short visit after a family reunion up in SLC. She drove all the way from Spokane with her two girls and one on the way, and then drove all the way back. I bow down to her. We all loved having some time with her darling girls and we even got a night out to ourselves to celebrate her birthday!
Thank you again for your kindness and well wishes towards myself and my brother Seth’s family. If you are interested in their recovery process, please visit the blog we set up from them for regular updates from now on:
Seth and Caroline’s Road to Recovery
Each day there seems to be some sort of improvement, even if it’s small. My heart breaks into a million pieces though to see my brother in so much pain and in his current condition. Most of the time, I can keep it together, but there are lots of times where the weight of the situation hits me and the tears come. In Seth’s own words, “It is what it is, and it’s a miracle.”
The most recent letter from my parents in Fiji:
Dearest Family and Friends,
From both you and other friends coming from your circles have come so many emails with such thoughtful and heartfelt support. We so appreciate them, every one. While we may not have time to respond to each one personally, we want you to know that every single one is meaningful to us and we pass them along to Seth and family as well as to all our family. We have been strengthened and touched and really don’t have the words to adequately express the ever growing circle of love they have created.
Today has been significant in that Caroline and the kids have accompanied Katie (Caroline’s sister) on a medical flight to Johannesburg where she can get better care and the whole family can be together. What joy and comfort that will bring. In addition, some of our family has also arrived today to support them all and lend help to Seth Wiggins who has continued to be the best friend anyone has ever had. Gratefully, Seth has been moved out of the “high care” ICU to the neurological surgery unit and that means he is more stable and making welcome improvement.
Before relaying the bad news of the extent of his injuries, we want to tell you that there is lots of good news as well and Seth is not degrading, to the contrary he’s making wonderful progress and the potential of paralysis seems distant and unlikely. But it breaks our hearts to read the medical report from the hospital, we can’t even relay it in print without a flood of tears. Seth reports that he “looks pretty gnarly”, and why not: he broke or fractured nearly every vertebrae in his spine through the cervical and thoracic regions, he has a contusion of the disks in the spine and spinal cord along with one lung, his skull and scapula and nose and ribs were fractured, and he has cuts and swelling in numerous places. He reports that he has “racoon eyes” and feels like a “bobble head” — not funny Seth. How can a body survive so many serious injuries? It is a miracle from start to now that he did not die nor is he permanently paralyzed. Oh how our heart goes out to him and to Caroline, Katie, Tommy and Cali for all they have been through and the long road to recovery that lay ahead.
On the bright side — surprising bright:
1. Seth was fitted with a Miami J Brace to stabilize his neck and no surgery is planned for the current time. A less invasive surgery/s than were originally proposed will likely take place at a later date when the swelling goes down.
2. Seth Wiggins sent the following: “Hey all, just a quick update: Today was by far and away the best day possible. Seth slept soundly through the night, proudly displayed new found arm mobility (enabling head scratching), and overall felt great. Very quickly this morning we learned that he was being moved from high-intensive care to a more general ward, so we packed up and said goodbyes to the nurses there. Upstairs is awesome – much less intensive care, which is great. Then Seth’s physiotherapist comes in and says she wants Seth to walk. Yeah me too. And then Seth walks. Holy crap. After a nap, he does it again, going about a total of 30 yards. Yeah. Then Caroline, kids, and Katie show up. Not much time spent at the hospital as the kids need to get settled, but still great. They get to a local church member’s house, then Seth and Katie head to sleep. Things are going to get a lot, lot better here in the next few days, I’m excited to see it.”
Of his walking, Seth Sherry told us that after the physiotherapist got him to stand, she said; “that’s probably enough for the day.” But Seth said; “hey, while I’m up I’m going to try and walk” — and he did, about 5 yards before he was exhausted and had to lie down again. But it sounds like he got back at it later in the day — just amazing.
3. Seth held the phone to his ear himself while we talked – a first!
4. Katie Raynor (Caroline’s sister), who has had a very difficult time recovering in a poor medical facility (by US standards – but the best they had in Zimbabwe) was finally approved by insurance to be flown to Johannesburg and placed in the same hospital as Seth. As mentioned before, Caroline and the kids came also. Oh how important it will be for them to be together and finally, Caroline who has carried such a burden through all of this, will have some relief and be reunited with Seth and have more support from Seth W. and family.
That’s all for now. So many blessings amidst such tragedy. We appreciate each and every one of you and your interest, prayers, and extensions of the heart.
Love,
Annie & Tom
Sorry for the radio silence over here. When your brother and his little family get in a horrible car accident in Africa, some things seem to lose their importance and you realize that your family and your faith are the things that really matter. I’ve been so touched to have people from literally all over the world express concern and care for my brother Seth and for me personally. I am so grateful for the connections I’ve made over the years through this webblog and felt that it was time for me to include you in not only our joys, but our sorrows.
I’m posting a letter from my sweet parents, serving a mission for the LDS church in Fiji:
Dear Friends and Family,
Some of you are very aware of the recent tragic auto accident Seth and Caroline were in, others of you may be learning of this for the first time. We wanted to give you all a brief update:
A few days ago, Seth and Caroline along with their children, Tommy (4 1/2 yrs) and Cali (1), Caroline’s younger sister, Katie (18yrs.), and 3 friends – including Seth’s best friend from Corvallis, Seth Wiggins, were all traveling by car from their home in Zambia to Zimbabwe. The driver fell asleep and the car rolled three times, crashing into a tree just at the front passenger seat where our Seth was seated. Though banged up, Seth Wiggins and the two other friends appear to have not been injured badly. Tommy was thrown from the car and had a concussion and cuts to his head, Cali seems to have been spared any serious injury, Caroline has a very serious cut on her foot, Katie has broken ribs and lung contusion along with a serious concussion and perhaps other undiagnosed injuries. Seth Sherry was critically injured with a broken neck and back (C-1 & C-6 vertebrae). As you can imagine, the care in a 3rd world country is lacking and compromised, particularly with Seth. Over a period of a day and half, it became clear that if Seth’s life and limb movement abilities were to be preserved, he would need to be flown to Johannesburg, South Africa which the insurance company did arrange and Seth Wiggins accompanied him on the flight (where he remains to give perfect care and attention to our Seth). Caroline and family stayed behind in a clinic in Harare, Zimbabwe (the capital) where they are now in the care of local LDS church members. All of them have been treated and released with the exception of Katie, but she now seems to be showing signs of improvement.
In South Africa, all exams and tests were redone and the injuries more specifically identified. Seth continues to have movement in feet and hands though his shoulders and arms above the elbow have diminished sensation and movement (this however, has improved over the last couple days – a very good sign). As of today, neurosurgeons are still discussing the best approach to stabilize Seth’s neck and back. The next step in doing so is critical and of immediate concern to prevent paralysis. As of this writing, we don’t know what course of action will be decided upon but it will likely happen in the next 24 hours.
There have been so many prayers, blessings, people in the right places, and miraculous help from LDS Church members in both Zimbabwe and South Africa. We appreciate your concern and prayers, they are deeply meaningful to us and important for Seth, Caroline and family. Between the physical injuries, time zone differences, challenges in long distant communication and getting accurate information, and the future unknowns, this is a terribly trying time but we trust in the Lord and pray for His watchcare to do what we cannot. We will update you all as we are able. Thank you dear friends for all you mean to us and our family.
Love,
Annie and Tom
We recently took a really great family trip to San Diego. We spent everyday on the beach or in the pool and had lots of treats and went to bed late. We saw friends and hung out with cousins, but more importantly, we were together as a family. I’ll post more pictures later, but here are some of my favorites of the olders being funny at the pool while Kate took a nap and Geoff went to a conference. Life is good and summer, oh how I love you.
Enjoy a million pictures from my camera and camera phone of our trip to Turkey. We took a bunch of videos too, but getting just a picture post up took long enough, so don’t be waiting on those.
Our trip started out a little rough with a delay in Salt Lake City of all places. That two hour delay pretty much screwed the rest of our well planned flights and we ended up getting to our final destination, Antayla Turkey, eight hours later than we were suppose to, making it a 25hr total trip. We were SO happy we didn’t have the kids with us at that point because delays and traveling through an entire night was painful enough for two adults.
The conference was to provide a tour into Antayla, but as far as we could make out from exchanged hand signals and a little English, it was canceled. We decided to do it anyways. The bus driver from the airport to the hotel was a very nice man and took us part of the way, dropped us off and told us his friend would take us the rest of the way. We didn’t really know what to think when this pimped out car came and got us. Check out the inside. I was a little worried about putting our lives into yet another stranger’s hands, but aside from the fact that he blasted the raunchiest rap music I’ve ever heard the entire way into Antayla, he was very reliable and picked us up and took us back at the agreed upon time.
Our final days there we spent relaxing at the pool. I think we read a total of five books between the two of us. I celebrated my birthday there and was treated to a Turkish massage which was royal treatment. We took a tour with a group from the conference to some of the old Roman sites. Unfortunately, the bus driver got lost and fouled up the timing so we had very little time at Perga which I was not happy about.
Then we were off to see the lovely Kursunlu waterfalls where I also got to check something off the bucket list, riding a camel! It was short lived, but really fun. Getting up and down was hilarious.
And lastly, to my most favorite spot of all, Aspendos. The theater was built in 155 and they still use it for concerts to this day. It was jaw dropping beautiful and so mind blowing to think we were standing in a structure built so long ago.
But, my favorite part of the whole trip was having my feet in the Mediterranean sand with my best friend. It was wonderful not having a schedule or routine and just having all the time in the world to talk, laugh and spend time with the man I’ve loved forever. Can’t wait for our next adventure!
