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Old 02-20-2013, 10:09 PM   #1
hadez
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Boston, Massachusetts
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Our Friend Exo/CHURCHMOUTH (Dan Branchen)

I just wanted to let everyone know that i got a message from dan's ex-fiance that i knew pretty well. I asked her what dans status is, what happened to him, ect ect. this is her reply, i'm posting it on here because she said she knows how much dan considers all of his fortress buddies part of his real group of friends.


" Hi Hades. Of course I remember you. I tried to get on IRC and find some of Dans friends from gaming to tell them but didn't know what channel to go on. Thanks soo much for your concern. Dan spent so much time playing with you and some of the others and even though it was only online I know he had some people he considers really good friends. I got your message while I was in visiting with Dan..I told him you sent good wishes. Its a long story so I'll start from the beginning. I don't know if you knew, but Dan struggled with a heroin additiction for years now. I tried so hard for so long to help him but it was ultimately why we split up. Anyways..he went to rehab for a couple months..he came back in the first week of December and on the morning of December 17th his mom found him struggling to get up in his room. He was conscious but had clearly been down for several hours as he was confused and could not get up..whether he overdosed overnight and made it back on his own we don't know...the paramedics came and when they lifted him off the ground he went into cardiac arrest..it was not directly from the drugs..but he had been down so long he had a blood clot form in his leg and when they moved him the clot went to his heart. He arrested 3 or 4 times before he was stable but lost oxygen to the brain each time. Once at hospital they determined that he mustve been passed out unconscious overnight for several hours for the clot to form...and since he had no circulation to leg they had to amputate his leg because it was essentially dead. Not only that but the toxins from the dead leg had got into all of his organs and were basically putting him into complete organ failure. Kidneys, heart, liver, lungs...all were failing...he was on 100% life support and the docs didn't think he'd survive through the night or even the entire first week. He was heavily sedated the first few days so that while they were working on getting all his organs better, he wasnt awake.. so at that point... he had not been conscious since when his mom found him, so his brain function was unknown...they wanted to keep him knocked out. They got him to a point that he was somewhat stable, but still critical... and stopped the sedation... so we waited for him to wake up, and waited, and waited. They did MRI, EEG, EP brain testing... the tests showed brain activity, AND brain damage, and the docs pretty much said... they just dont know if/when he will wake up. There is nothing they can do to make him wake up, or determine if he will. ALL of his organs are pretty much 100% better, he is not on ANY life support (except tube feeding) He moved out of ICU. His eyes are open, he moves around, but he is just not really aware. For a while, it seemed like he was just in lala land...he would move his arms and legs randomly, his eyes would wonder and drift and roll. The past couple weeks he has started what they call "tracking" he will focus on things/people with his eyes and follow their movement. He also just seems more relaxed, not as tense... he seems like he might be starting to wake up a tiny tiny bit, its hard to say for sure. He can not talk, respond, follow commands. There have been a couple times that his family said he was definitely following commands (like blinking or moving an arm on command) I dont know. There have been times that I was sure that he knew I was there and talking to him... other times I havent been sure. The docs say, he may or may not be able to hear us, see us, etc. Right now, the best case scenario... is that Dan slowly wakes up, and has to learn how to talk again, and walk again, and remember things.. we dont know if he will remember anything.. who he is, what he did.. etc. At the minimum it would probably be a year before he is back to somewhat normal.. and that is if he starts to wake up more. I hope he does. Worst case is that he remains like he is without improving.. just living, but not existing, no awareness. vegetative state. Never really waking up. I cant believe it, I still cant believe this happened. Dan is such a good person... he did not ever deserve this to happen. I love him so much This is the most terrible nightmare.

I am staying hopeful, and can definitely say that the past couple weeks it seems like he is somewhat more aware than he was up until this point. He will look right at people, and seems to know we're there. But its just a waiting game, wait and hope he wakes up. Please keep him in your thoughts."


If you would like to donate to dan's family and freinds they are having a funderraiser here:

http://highmark.towercare.com/Marksl...25704845890636



keep praying for exo that he will eventually be able to talk to us about this one day!!

Last edited by hadez; 02-20-2013 at 10:26 PM.
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