Kev Whitworth (Jacurutu) in a serious accident

First topic message reminder :

Hello all

I have received a message from Kev's wife (Jenny) today that Kev was involved in an accident whilst clambering across rocks in a scottish Loch. This happened earlier in the month and Kev has suffered a blood clot between his skull and brain (which has been successfully removed) and swelling to the brain. He is currently in a waking coma and is starting to respond to his surroundings but it will be a long time before his recovery can be fully assessed. Jenny will be sending regular updates which i'll post up. Infact, I'll post the email on this thread.

I know many have enjoyed some fantastic rideouts and chewed over the days events in the pub after with Kev and would like to wish him all the best.

I will contact Jenny and let her know that all our thoughts are with her and the family and i'd like to wish Kev all the very best in his recovery.

Gail xx

Pass on my best to the big man will you? Awful news but glad to see he's started on the road to recovery - all the best mate.

Please pass on my best wishes as well Ross, thanks Tes.

Pass on my best wishes to Kev also Rosco

And tell him there are some cracking photo's in his flikr account, i will try and get through them all!

Davie

Hey, tell him he's gotta get better 'cos some folks are planning a track day at Cadwell and we need someone to pick up the bits!

Well he did it for me and I haven't forgotten it

Chris

Glad ya going for the visit Ross to see the big lad.

Pass on our support for the adventurous lad will ya.
Really hope he comes 100% fit again and that he comes back to show
us how to power slide his back end in the wet again, like he did on st Harris.
All the best for him.

Rob and Linz

Say hi to him from me - tell him i was listening to Runrig today whilst i did my housework lol

Don't really know what to say, pass on my best wishes for a speedy recovery...

Fantastic News for Kev and pish news for me.

Fantastic for Kev in that he endured my rants from me and you lot.
I'm not ashamed to tell you I had tears in my eyes after I left and Kev had given me a big thumbs up.

I hope it was because he enjoyed the visit and not just because I was leaving.

Oh.....onto my pish news. I'm about .75 miles from the petrol station and am standing like a numpty on the A8.

Waiting like a damsel in distress for my little sister to come rescue me.....oh the shame.

Cheers
Rosco

[I could admit to having run out of juice myself the other day and had to resort to calling the AA (the one with yellow vans) to make you look slightly less silly, but I probably won't.]

Well, if Kev is already back to gesticulating at you then hopefully that's a good sign. Before too long you two will hopefully be duelling with your cameras again.

Well done for your efforts...if I ever decide to bounce down some rocks I'll give serious consideration to doing it in the vicinity of Glasgow with that kind of selfless service going on in the area. But with Kev already having taken the rock-based approach to attention-seeking I'll probably give it a miss for the moment and limit myself to continuing to send good wishes...

glad you visited kev & passed on our wisher,s now did you get a picture of his new hair cut so we can all take the piss out of him when he,s better
lol
pete

Not been on the forum lately, so I've only just seen this terrible shocking news about Kev. If you make another visit Ross please tell him we are all thinking of him and wish him a full and speedy recovery.

I'll try and pop in every so often.
I have a digital photo frame and was thinking of filling it with pictures for Kev.
If you have a few good ones of Kev, his bike, some group ones with him in it etc then I'd appreciate if you can email them to me and I'll load it up for him.
PM me if you don't have my email.
10MB limit per email.
Send as many emails as you want though.

Pete - Kev still has more hair than me so I can hardly do that.
Mark/Simon - no problem I'll pass your
messages on next time.

Cheers
Ross

Hi - I'm Kev's wife Jenny - just created myself an account so I could see what you were all saying about Kev! Big thumbs up from both of us to Rosco and others for visiting him - it's good to know that he's got people popping in to see him, as I can't be there all the time. Hope you found Kev in his new ward (63) - got a room on his own now, with a view of a crane! I'm going to do a proper update later today, and I'll post it up on the forum, but I just wanted to say hello to all Kev's biker friends, and thank you for all your comments (including the ones about his hair!)

Hi Jenny

Good to see you've signed up here. I noticed a huge improvement since the last time I visited Kev which was great to see. I'm sure he'll keep the momentum going on road to recovery. It even looked like he had a bit of colour about him again. Not the usual for visits to Glasgow I must add

Kev has lots of friends on here so please keep us all posted with his progress.
Give him a big hug from all of us too.

I normally feel uneasy hugging men in beds who are unable to say No.
What happened in Germany stays in Germany ok Dirt Bike Dave

Ross

Ross, great to see you're scaring Kev silly by visiting;) Loved the bit about you being sore cos Kev still has more hair than you!!! lets face it babe, short of bic'd to the wood, most will beat you LOL

Jenny, thankyou so much for joining up and sending your messages. As you can see, Kev is thought about very much and it's lovely that you can take our thoughts and wishes back to him.

I'm actually starting my own show on an online biker radio station tomorrow night ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and will be wishing Kev all the best on there and sending the best wishes of the entire group.

Gail x

Rosco wrote:Hi Jenny

Good to see you've signed up here. I noticed a huge improvement since the last time I visited Kev which was great to see. I normally feel uneasy hugging men in beds who are unable to say No.
Ross

ditto what Ross said Jenny ... and ross he's probably improving coz he's worried you might actually climb in the bed to hug him as he's unable to say no

Hi Jenny,

And Welcome to the forum.

It's great news to hear that Kev is on the road to recovery.
Everyone will be looking forward to your updates when you have the time and energy to post them, in what must be a stressfull time for you too.

Best wishes to you and Kev.

Tel

Dear all



Just thought I’d let you know the latest on Kev’s progress.



Since my last email the priority has been to clear up Kev’s chest infection – he is off antibiotics for this now, and is getting a bit better every day. He was having humidified oxygen to help clear his chest (like putting your face over a bowl of hot water when you’ve got a cold), but he is now off this for most of the time (his nurse is just putting him back on it when he is struggling a bit, mainly at night or when he’s tired). The physios have been visiting him at least once a day, mainly to help clear his chest, and they are pleased with the way things are going.



As for movement, there’s a lot hand-squeezing going on! I went to see Kev last Thursday (26th) and stayed until Monday (30th) – a friend (David) from York joined me up there, which was good for me, and gave Kev a break from me blethering on! In the few days that we were there we saw small improvements – his right eye is opening normally now, and his left eye is 50-75% open, depending on how awake he is. His eyes are synchronising more, and I could tell that he was looking at me when I talked to him. His eyes also followed me when I walked round his bed. As for movement, he’s obeying simple commands from the nurse/physio (eg hand-squeezing), and he is also squeezing the hands of his visitors, and sometimes does a thumb-up or a goodbye wave. He is also moving his lower right arm. Kev is spending a lot of time asleep (but he always seems to wake up when I’ve been sitting by his bed for half an hour and just decided to leave him to sleep!) However, sleep is probably one of the best things for him right now (particularly whilst getting over the chest infection) – I’ve told him to enjoy the rest before the hard work of rehab starts…



Kev is now on Ward 63, which means fewer stairs for visitors! He was simply moved because his medical team are based on Ward 63, and he was being a bed-borrower on Ward 65 until a bed became available on 63. He was on a four-bedded bay in 65, but now has a room on his own, with a view of a crane and the occasional seagull. I am going out to visit him again tomorrow (Thursday 2nd), and meeting with two sets of friends who are coming up from Yorkshire.



Kev’s doctors say that he is making good progress, and we can begin to look at things week-by-week (rather than day-by-day). The plan is that once Kev’s chest infection has cleared up, his doctors will take out his trache (probably next week). At this point Kev will be able to have a more formal assessment of his rehab needs before he moves on to the next stage. His doctors have said that his rehab will probably be in Glasgow. They will definitely not be sending him back to Western Isles yet. This is a big relief to me, as we do not have the specialist facilities here that Kev will need to have the best possible recovery. Although it is difficult not being able to be with Kev every day, I know that this is the right decision – he needs the best rehab right now, and we will have many years together in the future. I know that it will also be easier for Kev’s friends to visit him whilst he is on the mainland, although he’s not a social butterfly at the moment (was he ever?), and if you are passing Glasgow and call in to see him, don’t expect him to be awake!



Thank you all for your support – it means a lot to both of us. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us, but it helps to know that we have friends we can lean on.



Jenny

Thats great news Big Kev is improving. Once i get back on dry land i'll pop in again to say hi.
Rosco I'll give you a call in a couple of weeks and we can both pop in.

Thecatlass wrote:I'm actually starting my own show on an online biker radio station tomorrow night ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and will be wishing Kev all the best on there and sending the best wishes of the entire group.

Nicely done Gail.

Ross I think your idea of the photo frame is fantastic.
I have some taken on Skye a few years back.
Will pass them on.
Let me know when you two are heading over and I will do my best to join you.
Feel bad as I am at most half hour away from Kev but work and family commitments are keeping me so busy.

Euan

Dear all



Thought you would like to know the latest on Kev’s progress. The chest infection cleared up, so the next stage after that was to start preparing to take the trache out. Whilst the trache was in Kev was breathing through that, so we had to make sure he could breathe through his nose/mouth before removing the trache. The nurses capped off his trache for a period each day so that he had to breathe normally, but took the cap off when he started to struggle or fell asleep. The first day (Thursday 2nd Sep) Kev went for about an hour capped off, by Sunday he was up to 7 hours, and on Tuesday 7th Sep the trache was taken out.



Kev’s doctors are pleased with his progress, and I can definitely see small changes from week to week. Last week we started to see a bit of head movement – when I walked round Kev’s bed he followed me with his head as well as his eyes (only a small movement, but it’s something). He was also more awake this week when I visited – he would be awake for maybe 10 minutes at a time. I think this was largely to do with his nurse, a really lovely guy called Martin who has a distinctive Irish accent. Kev opens his eyes and looks for Martin every time he’s in the room, but it’s good to see Kev responding to his environment.





Kev has had a number of visitors, so thank you to everybody who has popped in to see him. Several lucky people have been treated to a goodbye wave (there are a few different waves in Kev’s repertoire). Now that Kev is more awake, just a note to anybody going to visit Kev – I’d be really grateful if you didn’t mention the accident to Kev, or his hair. When I feel the time is right I will tell him about what has happened, but I need to do this myself. Don’t worry if you have talked about these things in front of Kev before, as he probably didn’t understand everything you were saying. However, now he is more aware of things we just need to watch what we say – we don’t know how much he understands and I don’t want Kev to overhear something that he only half understands and that scares him.



For anyone who can’t make a visit, if you would like to send Kev letters I will read them to him when I visit. It’s nice for both of us to hear your news, and it gives me something to tell Kev (not much happens in Western Isles, so local news doesn’t last very long!) It’s probably best to send anything to our home address or email it to me, as the hospital is a big place and post can go astray.



Our next aim to establish some yes/no communication, which should make things easier for everybody, so I’ll let you know how that goes in my next update…



J

Unfortunately I didn't manage to get pics loaded onto the frame or visit last week.
I'm getting pics ready to load onto the picture frame (some of Kevs from him Flickr page, some of mine and some from Stevecat's Flickr page) and I plan to visit tomorrow night.

Haven't had much in the way of photos sent through. :(

If you've been on any rideouts with Kev please send a few to me - rossbarbour at (the .com version of) hotmail as soon as you can so I can get them loaded on.

Ross

Here's my contribution to the photo frame.

Hope you manage to upload them Ross.

Cheers,
Chris

Ross i cant make tomorrow night as its my daughters birthday. could you make it wed night and ill meet you? if not no worries. I'll pop in and see Kev later this week

Great Pics Chris. I'll get them on the photo frame.
[p.s. I hope to be with you late afternoon / early evening on Thursday. I'll bring brandy for my nerves]

Haven't actually asked the hospital about leaving a photo frame there. Hope it will be ok.
Hopefully it will be seen more as a useful thing for Kev and his visitors rather than a health and safety (hasn't passed our electical checks) thing.

Can't make Wednesday I'm afraid I've got jobs round the house that need a real man. Unfortunately he wasn't available so between me and Euan hopefully we can fix it.

Hope the birthday bash goes well.

The photo frame will have a standard SD card in it. Feel free to add some more from your laptop if you are able.

Cheers
Ross