Photo courtesy of Stuart Stith
By now, most of you know that Keith Stith and his wife, Jennifer, were involved in an auto accident yesterday morning. I spoke with their son, Stuart, this afternoon and he let me know a little more about his parents' injuries. Let's be clear, both of his parents have sustained injuries which are severe in nature. His dad is in the ICU unit in critical condition after being transported to Macon while his mom is in the South Georgia Medical Center in Valdosta.
According to Stuart, his mother has two broken legs and her right ankle was crushed. She also has five broken ribs and her left ear was damaged. He said that surgery has already been performed on her ear and she will undergo further surgery on Tuesday to correct some of the other injuries. Her condition is stable enough that she was being moved to a private room at South Georgia Medical Center on Monday afternoon.
As far as Keith is concerned, Stuart let me know that his dad had 8 broken ribs, a broken left hip, a broken right femur, a heavily lacerated tongue, and a deep laceration to his right calf. Keith underwent minor surgery last night to repair damage to his tongue and they placed a pin in his hip but they are waiting for him to stabilize more before repairing any more of the serious conditions. Stuart indicated that the doctors are attempting to elevate his dad's blood pressure, hemoglobin and platelets before they do any more surgery. In other words, his dad's condition is still not good.
One of the things that Stuart and I spoke about was his parents' faith. They all have a strong faith in God and they know that He is the Great Physician. He wanted me to pass that on to everyone as he asked for all of our prayers.
We spoke a little bit about the wreck itself and he gave me permission to post the picture he took at the scene. You see, he arrived at the scene while his parents were still in the vehicle. Apparently, it must have taken some time to extricate them and he didn't want to relive that experience by recounting it at this time. He did say it was the toughest thing he has ever gone through in his life. We can only imagine.
My heart goes out to him and his parents. Difficult times are ahead and I do pray that our Heavenly Father will give them the peace, strength, and understanding that only He can - and healing.
