This was sent to the Corvair List from a friend in Fayetteville.
Dear Dan/Glen & the rest of the Corvaircrafters: Mike Hyers here from Fayetteville, NC. Jack and I are close friends from when he lived here in Fayetteville, NC. Sandy has been communicating with me about every 10 days or so. She is extremely stressed out by this whole situation. There are other factors going on that were stressors before the accident. The accident just piled more on her. But she does have familly, friends, and church supporting her the best they can for now. Glen, if you were the winning bidder then you indeed did win Jack's plane. When I followed the eBay link in your message I recognized the plane and his house in the background. I helped him work on it when he had it here in Fayettevlle. I helped him tow it to Chuckey when he built his new house at Hensley Airpark. By the way, I still have the fixture that we used to support the main landing gear when we transported it on my trailer. Depending on where you are located you might want to use the fixture when you are finally able to pick up the plane. Or I could send you the dimensions and some photos. It is made of welded steel. Jack is in very serious condition from the crash. His neck was broken at C-5/C-6. He has had major swelling of the spinal cord. He is paralyzed but to what extent I do not know. Sandy never said anything to me about it in any of her emails. I picked up that bit of intel from one of the online newspaper articles. One of his granddaughters had entered the first comment in the comments section and stated the fact that he was paralyzed and ask for everyone's prayers. Jack has had problems with recurring bouts of high fevers. A couple of weekends ago his fever spiked to 105. They had to wrap him in cooling blankets to keep him from literally burning up. He sleeps a lot due to all of the medications. Sandy did say that he is NOT in a coma. He has had some pneumonia but that has not caused fluid buildups in his lungs. He has had tubes put into his chest to drain fluid buildups from bruised lungs. I do not know if he has had a tracheotomy. However, he might have, as he has been on a ventilator. The doctors have been working to wean him down to a ventilator O2 setting of 50 or less so that he could be transferred to the hospital in Bristol, TN. The Bristol hospital has a specialized team of pulmonologist that work to wean people completely off of ventilators. Originally, after he is weaned off of the ventilator, he was to be moved to either Sheppard Hospital in Atlanta or to the VA hospital in Augusta, GA, for spinal cord injury rehab. The latest word that I got from Sandy was 3 days ago. She said that Jack would be going to the VA hospital in Augusta, GA. Here is the exact message that she sent me: "Jack's temp is normal for the time being; he has been running a low grade fever but nothing like the temps he had last week. 02 is now at 35% with breaths per minute down from 18 to 10. Swallowing test was a disappointment. He aspirated so the test was stopped. Speech therapist will work with him 3 to 5 times a week on strengthening his throat muscles. He is still very weak and sleeps a lot. Tentative date for Augusta is the week after Thanksgiving depending on his condition and availability of a room. Sandy" The Medical College of Georgia and Eisenhower Army Medical Center are co-located in Augusta as well. There is an extensive amount of experience amongst these three hospitals in treating spinal cord injuries. Sandy has asked that we NOT bombard her with messages, phone calls, or visits. I had to wait patiently for the last two updates without bothering her. As Jack and I were very close when he lived in Fayetteville it has been really hard for me because of worrying about him. Glen, I would recommend that you just stand by for now. I will send a note to Sandy about the eBay sale and see if she would like for me to help her with it. To all that are reading this message I ask that if you believe in any kind of higher power that you pray for Jack and Sandy to make it through these trying times. In the meantime please contact me off the message board at <mikeehyREMOVE THIS [email protected]> As soon as I get any more information on Jack's status I will let everyone know. If someone wants to forward this over to the KRNet then please do so. In Christ's Love, Michael E. Hyers Fayetteville, NC
