TORCS racer Austin Morgan received a critical brain injury on Sunday July 6 while practicing at a MX track. He was life-flighted from the track to Brackenridge Trauma Unit. He is currently listed in critical condition with life-threatening brain injuries. He was knocked unconscious at the track and he never regained consciousnesses. His condition is very serious. We are asking for prayers and any financial assistance you can give to help with his medical bills. Please follow this link to donate Keep Austin Strong

This is an update about Austin from his father Leonard Morgan:

Hello to all of our friends and loved ones. I can't believe all the support we have, and Brenda and I want to thank all of you for your support and concern. Right now, Austin needs every prayer, good wish, get better, and whatever else you have to offer. Please keep him in your prayers, place him on your prayer lists, whatever you can do. Austin is in need of nothing short of a miracle to survive and recover. Brenda and I are devastated as anyone can imagine, but our concern is for Austin, and all we want is for him to get better, get well, and recover.

His condition right now is still critical. His chance of survival are still unknown. Brenda and I cannot go there, so I cannot talk about that.
His injuries are serious, critical, and his prognosis is really unknown.
He in on a ventilator, he has a brain drain tube extending into the central and center part of is brain, he has a feeding tube, and he is connected to things I really do not know what they do. He has 6 separate brain bleeds, he has 2 right lung bleeds, his back is broken at T7, his right eye orbital is crushed, his right clavicle is broken, and he is missing a lot of skin and flesh on his right shoulder and side.

His doctor told us this morning that he is developing pneumonia. They want to keep him sedated and control his internal cerebral pressure at this point. Once that is stable, they plan to do a tracheotomy, and place a feeding tube directly into his stomach.

After that, they will try to bring him out of a coma to see what his motor function and cognitive function looks like. Depending on his level of functioning, and how well, if at all, he can engage in therapy and rehab, they will plan accordingly. They anticipate that he will need 24 hour care in a nursing home for at least a year. They cannot say for sure, but they feel he will need more care and need facilities that are not available to Brenda and I before we can even think about bringing him home.
His prognosis is not good, and Austin is in dire need of a miracle. Please keep him in your prayers.

A lot of people are afraid to come see him because they do not want to be in the way or to overwhelm us. Please do not feel that way. Everyone of our friends and family and all of Austin's friends are welcome to come and see him. I know he would want you to come up and see him and talk to him. Doctor's are not sure how much information he can take in, if any, but they encourage familiar voices to talk and comfort him. They encourage reassurance and comforting words from his family and friends to help him feel safe and know his friends and family are here for him. If his ICP's go up, or anything happens, the staff is not bashful (nor disrespectful) in asking everyone to leave the room so they can focus on Austin.

Thank you to all of the many of you that have called, texted and emailed concerning Austin. Brenda and I appreciate your prayers and concerns. It is beginning to get difficult for us to keep up with all the communications we are getting, so please pass along to others to try to check facebook for updates. I will try to post updates several times a day. For those of you that need to text, call, or email, that is alright and neither Brenda or I will be offended, we just may not be able to get back to you as soon as we would like.

Austin needs nothing short of a miracle. Please help him in every way you can get the miracle he so desperately needs. We appreciate and love you all, please keep Austin in your prayers, place him on your prayer lists, or do whatever it is you do when you turn to whoever you turn to for help and guidance.

I have to go... They are rushing Austin to get another ct scan because his brain drain tube just filled with blood.

Please pray for him.

Leonard Morgan

The following is a link to Austin's FB page where you may see his progress:

Keep Austin Strong

I don't do Facebook. Could someone give an update?

From the facebook page
Leonard R. Morgan

As of this morning, Austin is doing better. Yesterday, he improved through the day, all small steps, but all positive steps. Yesterday he was not moving anything on his right side. Over the night, he started moving his right side. Not as much or as often as his left, but he is moving it when we stimulate the right side. I walked in this morning and used my thumbnail to drag across the bottom of his right foot and got an immediate reaction. Brenda went to his bedside and was talking to him and he turned his head toward her direction. These are not reflexive moves, but purposeful and appropriate moves directly related to stimulation.


He has developed pneumonia. His trauma doctor feels that he has improved enough to do a tracheotomy and put a stomach feeding tube in. They are doing that right now as I type. They will not take him off the ventilator even after they do the tracheotomy until he demonstrates the ability to breath on his own. Hopefully, this will not be a problem and he will start to breath on his own right away.

If he can breath on his own, and tolerates the trach and feeding tube well, they want to start to reduce his meds again to see if he can vocalize and communicate. Although his doctor does not know if that will happen, we feel that it will because he has continually tried to spit the vent out, coughs repeatedly trying to get the vent out, and he is responding appropriately to all other stimuli.

I am sorry I have not posted since Wednesday. It was a very hectic day yesterday. There was the treatment plan that was relayed to us the first thing yesterday morning, and Austin's behavior and response was not what was anticipated. When that occurred, we would be consulted with options regarding changes in his treatment plan. They would make changes, and he would respond better than anticipated, so the plan would change again.

Austin continues to amaze us, and his doctors, with his progress. All of his progress is in very small, and sometimes almost unnoticeable, incremental behavior. We will take any good news we can get.

Right now, Brenda and I are waiting on his doctors to finish the trach and stomach peg. As soon as they are done, they will come get us. They want us there with him if and when they try to wake him. Since he has been fighting everyone that messes with him, they have him in restraints, but they want us there to settle him down if we get that far today. I'm not sure how far we will get, but I will keep everyone posted.

Please keep Austin in your prayers. He needs nothing short of a miracle right now, and we are seeing signs of improvement. Keep the prayers coming to keep Austin progressing. Remember, please help us Keep Austin Strong.

Brenda and Leonard

Thank you for the update. He sounds like a fighter. we will keep praying for him.

Update from Facebook.








Leonard R. Morgan

19 hrs
.


Austin had a pretty quiet night last night. They just kept him sedated pretty heavily so he could rest. After the doctors made their rounds, his plan of care was basically to remain sedated and let him rest. However, that all changed later in the morning. I am not sure if it was supposed to, but it did and we got good information and good news. The physical therapists came in and decided it was time for Austin to sit up in bed and quit just lying around all day. There were 3 therapists, and they just sat him up right in the bed, turned him so his legs hung off the bed and started telling him to do things. They managed to get him to hold a wash cloth and try to wash his face. He sort of rubbed his face with the cloth when he was told to do so. Then they gave him a toothbrush and got him to try to brush his teeth. He gave it a good solid effort and with a little assistance holding his elbow up, he tried his best to coordinate brushing his teeth.


Brenda was encouraging him and he turned his head toward her. It was pretty obvious he heard her and was looking for her. He is still unable to vocalize or even focus on anything. He is opening his eyes, but it is just more of a distant stare. At least he is opening his eyes and trying to follow basic commands. This is far more progress than we expected, but it is progress we are thrilled to see.

Since the physical therapists had him sitting up, washing, and brushing, he has been resting. Even a little movement, a little effort on his part is quite taxing on him right now. The good news is that his ICP's remained low, and they did not have to open the drain or use medications to strip the fluid out to manage his pressures. His pressures remain low.

As some of the swelling has gone down in his face and upper body, it became apparent that he has damaged his left hand. It appears to be a broken or a few broken bones on the pinky side of his left hand. They plan to do some xrays later to see exactly what's wrong. They also have some concern about the right eye orbital, but as far as I'm concerned, that can wait until he is feeling better.

The other good thing is that they are not planning to put the internal drain in from his head down into the stomach. Once they do that, it never comes back out and it causes issues with infections.

It's been another day, and his progress is still moving along. It is slow, but it is progress.

Thanks again to everyone and please remember to

KEEP AUSTIN STRONG

Praise be to God that is great news. Keep up the prayers

Update from facebook.



Leonard R. Morgan

16 hrs
.


Austin is still making slow improvement. That's a good thing but I just wish it were more progress and faster. He seems to be able to do a few more things each day but he still has a long way to go.

He tries to brush his own teeth but he's not too good at it yet. His nurse was trying to brush his teeth this morning and he kept reaching up to grab her. She kept moving away. I told her I thought he was trying to get the tooth brush and the next time he reached for it she let him have it. He grabbed it with his left hand but the brush was pointing away from his mouth. He was able to turn the brudh with his lefy hand only to get the proper grip then he just kind of stuck the brush in his mouth.


He managed to give one of his Doctors a left handed thumbs up today too. He still has slow eye tracking. Most of the time it looks like he is staring into space and he does not actually look at you.

He has that "deer in the headlight" look most of the time. They started a medication just about an hour ago. I cant remember the name of it but it is supposed to help the brain kind of kick back into gear.

Maybe tomorrow he will start making eye contact and focusing on people and objects. I really dont think that will happem tomorrow, but he's going to get there pretty soon

Ill post more later. I have to do this with my phone because I forgot the charger for my laptop. I am slow enough typing already without having to do this on my phone.

Thanks for all the support from everyone, and remember Austin in your prayers and remember to KEEP AUSTIN STRONG.

Another update from FB today.

Leonard R. Morgan

3 hrs
.

Austin was taken into surgery this morning for his left hand. He is in recovery at this time, but we do not know what they had to do. It was a pretty displaced break just behind the left little finger knuckle. The small bone on the top of the hand between the knuckle and the wrist was broken and the x-ray looked like both ends of the broken bone were pointing toward the palm of the hand. The break looked like an "L" except the two pieces were separated by maybe 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch. They had 3 plans to fix it. One was just to manipulate the bones to try to get them to line up, the second plan involved pins from the end of hi little finger through the knuckle and into the two displaced bones, and the third was to make an incision on the side of the hand and use a small plate and screws. We are not sure what they did at this point.

The news on his recovery is more like a giant roller coaster. We hear some good things, but then just as we are feeling better, we get other information that sends us crashing to the ground again. That was out yesterday.....

Austin's prognosis is still a long term rehabilitation. He still does not know who is in the room, we can't get him to focus on either of us and he looks as though he does not know anyone or anything. He does respond to some commands sometime. It can be a command from a doctor, maybe a nurse, maybe Brenda or me. He still does not have the ability to focus on anything or anyone. When we look into his eyes, all we see is a blank stare that appears to look through us. We can't make eye contact, and he is at a point where he is very agitated most of the time. We don't really know why, but we are told that this sort of thing happens. He is very combative, and he has to be restrained because he is pulling on things and struggling with everything and everyone.

Sometimes when the staff is having to do things to him that are uncomfortable for him, all you can see is fear in his eyes and on his face. We try to comfort him, but nothing seems to get through. I have a hard time being in the room, and Brenda has a hard time leaving the room. One of the most difficult things for us is just not knowing. We don't know what to do, where to start, or how to adjust and plan for his future or ours. All we know is that we are prepared to do anything and everything we can do to help Austin recover. We are hopeful for a full recovery, but we have no idea if he will make a full recovery, or how much recovery he will make.

It is such a tragedy that this happened to Austin. He is such a kind and gentle soul that would help anyone with anything. He was all set to head to UT, he already had enough college credits to start an a sophomore, he was invited into the Natural Science Department with a major in biology with a medical track program, and was planning to go on to medical school. Now all that he has worked for, and all he has done to prepare himself for the next step in his life is in jeopardy.

Brenda and I are still in a daze. We are both still numb from all that has happened, and we feel so helpless, we know we will have to make a lot of changes in our lives, but we have no idea how or what needs to be done. We don't know where Austin will be going when he is healthy enough to leave the hospital, and we don't know how long he will need to be there.

Brenda and I are prepared to do anything and everything for Austin. Its so hard to just not know what we need to do, then once we know, it is like we are so consumed with dealing with Austin, how will we find the time to do it. I'm sure we will be able to get everything figured out, but at this point it seems like we are facing issues that we have no clue how to deal with. We both do everything we can to Keep Austin Strong, but we crash into the pits of devastation several times a day. We don't know how to stay optimistic, we are scared for Austin, and mommy and daddy don't know what to do to fix it.

As soon as I get an update on Austin's hand, I will post for all those concerned. Again, we thank you all so much and ask that you keep Austin in your prayers. Please do everything you can to help us

KEEP AUSTIN STRONG.

Leonard and Brenda