Update on injured cyclist Dawn Slawta
Posted by Jonathan Maus (Editor) on March 19th, 2007 at 10:37 am
I’ve received some welcome news about the condition of Dawn Slawta.
Dawn was seriously injured when her bicycle collided with a motor vehicle in northeast Portland on February 7th.
The 25 year-old employee of Black Sheep Bakery in southeast Portland, struck her head (she was not wearing a helmet) and sustained major swelling of her brain, fractured neck vertebrae, and sustained a broken collar bone and rib.
Dawn was in Intensive Care at Legacy Emanuel Hospital for two and a half weeks, and was in a coma until last week. Her dad reports that she has now opened up her eyes, sat up, eaten some apple sauce, and spoken a few words to her family.
Dawn’s recovery will take a long time, but this is encouraging news.
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March 19th, 2007 10:41
Very good news. And a somber reminder on why wearing a helmet is a good idea.
March 19th, 2007 10:52
best wishes and a speedy recovery dawn, we're glad that your still with us.
March 19th, 2007 11:56
Great news there, especially considering the dire conditions post-collision(brain swelling is some terrifying stuff). Hopefully her consciousness and ability to communicate is indicative of the potential for near-full recovery.
March 19th, 2007 15:32
Good news. Will she make a full recovery? If so, and I do hope so lets all chip in for a full face helmet before she gets back on the saddle. I will put $20 in.
March 19th, 2007 17:28
Felix-
At this stage it's hard to even guess. It's not like she wakes up and everything's known- she may be in for months of rehab before she can even function independently, much less ride. I agree with NIK- the signs are positive, but the road ahead is long and strewn with obstacles.
FWIW: I work at Legacy Emanuel. For better or worse, the HIPAA privacy laws prohibit me from saying anything about Dawn's condition- that information will have to come from her family, via Jonathon.
Jeff
March 19th, 2007 19:52
I worked with a non-profit health services-focused agency in Illinois through an AmeriCorps VISTA project centered around IT stuff in the year prior to moving here, and I'll second Jeff's comments about HIPAA - very stringent guidelines over privacy stuff. Note I say guidelines where others might say laws...what we had to deal with in terms of specifics regarding encryption technologies for transmission of patient records alone was staggeringly vague and interpretable enough where the agency had to get legal counsel to find out if our solutions were acceptable, and then the lawyers ultimately wound up having to directly ask the state for approval! Jeff's wise for covering his ass here...it's scary stuff. No doubt AO will have a ton to say on the subject. Either way, don't take offense, Jeff's looking out for both himself and the hospital as a whole on this one.
March 19th, 2007 20:37
it's sadly amazing that when a cyclist who's been drinking runs a stop at night without a headlight -- and gets hit by/hits a car whose driver has been drinking -- that other cyclists sum up the lesson and remedy as a helmet, full-face preferably. yes, a helmet could conceivably have minimized the head trauma (at the possible expense of exacerbating the neck trauma), but the real lesson here is elsewhere. i'm not into making lessons of the misfortunes of others, but if you must, consider prevention before mitigation please. it's dangerous to emphasize the latter without even mentioning the former. and please don't take my recitation of the circumstances as lack of compassion for the injured -- god knows i've shown worse judgment from time to time even after the age of 25.
get well, dawn!
March 20th, 2007 10:44
I hope that Dawn has a rapid and full recovery.