January 5th....sometime around 7:00pm - Day 1

Ericka spoke with Mike on his cell phone around 6:48pm. Kevin spoke to him shortly after that. Mike was en route to Shreveport from their camp at Toledo Bend. Within an hour and a half, Ericka received a call from the Chaplin at LSU Medical Center in Shreveport. All she was told was that Mike has been in a bad car accident.

After arriving at LSU Med., more information was available. Friends that arrived at the scene shortly after the accident said that he had been broad-sided by a tractor trailer truck. They had to cut Mike out of the truck. It took approximately 30 minutes. He was in stable condition when they began the process of airlifting him to Shreveport.

Mike was placed in the SICU with the following known injuries: A fractured neck, fractured ribs, internal bleeding in the area of the spleen and liver, swelling of the brain, blood on the brain, and bruising of the brain. He was unconscious from the time of arrival at the hospital. The internal bleeding was contained so they proceeded with a scan on his brain.

The scan and Mike's responses did not correspond with each other. Judging from his physical responses, the doctors felt that he would have a scan that was much worse than the one that he had. They determined that the two main areas of trauma to his brain were the frontal lobe and the occipital lobe. After a few hours, they requested permission to place a shunt in his head to drain off the extra fluid and release some pressure. After performing the procedure, they found that the pressure on his brain was normal.

Ericka did not get to see Mike until after 12:30 am. He remained unconscious. Listed as critical and unstable.