06/09/2025
Ellen Schlabach was involved in a car accident 5/24/2025. After 2 weeks in the hospital with intesive care and a ventilator she is breathing on her own and on a road to recovery. Please keep our dear Ellen Schlabach in your thoughts and prayers. 😢
https://www.caringbridge.org/site/beb5f69c-39da-11f0-a0fc-3530b27e9a37
Traumatic Brain Injury - for now we wait
**edited with updated accident information**
“Late afternoon on Saturday, May 24, 2025, Ellen was in a three car accident. We do not know many details about the accident at this time except that there are witnesses, a driver crossed the center line and hit Ellen driver side head on. It was a large pick up and rolled up onto Ellen's car, eventually flipping and crossing into the path of another vehicle, and we've been told everyone else involved (including her beloved Beagle, Kilgore) is okay. We have heard since there were some injuries but none that requires transportation. Ellen, on the other hand, was/is not.
Ellen had to be extracted from her car and was transported to TriStar Skyway, a trauma 1 hospital. A trauma 1 hospital means she is at a hospital which provides the highest level of trauma care, providing comprehensive and specialized treatment. These centers are equipped to handle the most complex trauma cases and have 24/7 access to specialized surgeons and critical care specialists. (thanks AI) We feel fortunate this level of care was so close at hand.
Her face and body are relatively untouched beside a few abrasions and a minor break on her left hand. Her head is another story. She has a SAH brain bleed on her forehead, possibly from hitting the steering wheel on impact (the airbag did deploy). She also has a very large and nasty gash on the back of her head by her hairline, possibly from the shattered windshield landing and laying on her. We've asked how many staples and sutures were needed for the gash and the official number is "a lot." Due to her Glasgow coma scale they put her on ventilation as a precaution. Even though she is in critical condition, they were able to stabilize her relatively quickly and she has remained stable.
There have been signs she is neurologically strong. Unfortunately there are also signs that she was not strong enough to be taken off the ventilator today. There are also signs that the brain bleed is still doing its thing. We assume the two go hand in hand. As long as she is on the ventilator she needs to remain sedated. As long as she is sedated we cannot know what other damage the injuries may have caused or how much work she has ahead.
So we wait.
The love you all have for our curious, caring, precocious Ellen takes our breath away. Your love and care during this very scary time helps to hold us up. I wish we had better answers for your inquiries of how she is doing. I wish we had more evidence that her brain is working at healing itself.
So we all wait.
Thank you to Ellen's Tennessee community who have welcomed us into your fold. We are so grateful for your help navigating everything that needs to be handled. We would be beyond overwhelmed without you and it is clear we do not have a monopoly on loving Ellen. Thank you for being here for Ellen. Thank you for being here for us.
Thank you to all our communities, near and far. Thank you for letting us know you are here, waiting to help when needed.
Thank you to Mary and Josie for setting up the GoFundMe. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.
Thank you for being here for us. Thank you for waiting with us.
Waiting is hard
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