A hospital visit

Earlier today I went to visit my nephew Eric in ICU. (I'll warn you now this isn't for the faint of heart.)

Eric works at a newspaper running a printing press. As part of their loading and printing routine they have to step under a spinning drive shaft. Well the shaft had a foam piece taped on with duct tape and absolutely no guard grill. The tape flapped loose, snagged Eric's hair and with the force of the drive shaft spun his hair up and ripped off his scalp and left ear. They performed an 8 hour surgery yesterday afternoon to reattach some facial muscles and place some type of sponge with a drainage tube on his bare skull. It’s hard to explain the tear line. It starts just below the left ear and angles up diagonally onto his forehead, missing his eyebrow, then up to the hairline/top of the head before circling back around. Both of his eyes are bruised and he has very dark purple-blue eyelids. He has another surgery tomorrow morning and I’m not sure how many more to follow. Needless to say it will be a long road to recovery but he’s strong. Bless him, he’s fairing better than his parents. (It’s the job of parents to worry though.) He some how convinced one of the ICU nurses to let him use the phone this morning so he could call and let his parents know when visiting hours were. (He’s always been a charmer.) I was also tickled when I asked if he wanted anything to read and he requested Lord of the Rings. He's twenty three and lucky to be alive.