Chris was stable and peaceful today. No major changes. Yuki & Nicolas arrived today.

First friends to come from NY to be with us and see Chris. I will love them both forever for their friendship...

Chris is sweating a lot today maybe due to his temperature. Today all medication - except Paracetamol - is withdrawn (i.e. seizure medication). Gabriel is brought to the hospital for the first time and he stares very seriously at his father for a long time. Chris' heart rate went out of rack when he "saw" Gabriel - not sure if it's coincidental or not but eyes also opened very wide and breathing was also very irregular. Gabriel can not stay too long in the ICU due to risks of infection. Later at night, Chris was peaceful.

Stable in the morning, we started to play music for Chris, and he seems to "react" to me the most, I clipped his nails today and his eyes opens even more frequently.

This morning Chris is quiet. He shed a tear (of pain?), we met our social worker Rickey Godding. Chris opens his eyes more often and wider without being prompted (before today eyes would only open in response to pain).

Family decided to seek for second opinion and expecting to speak with the neurologist. Chris started to breath on his own today - that's a great progress. Chris has also opened his eyes a couples of times. Legs trembling a bit. Temperature very high due to chest infection. Neurologist, dr. Pambakian, examined Chris today and said she saw great improvement from day 1. She confirms our belief that Chris has some level of awareness - although it is impossible to assess how much. She conveys that it is too early to know the final outcome and that we should have hope - despite there not having any promises or guarantees at all. She believes he will get better - but it is not clear at this point how much better he can get. This process is likely to take months.Her examination shows that Chris' right side responds better than his left side of the body. Cause at this point in unknown and we may never know. Chris has involuntary responses and brain stem seems to be OK. Dr. Pambakian gaves us hope.

Chris' mom Maureen is also in London now.

Chris seemed better this morning. More responsive to pain, moving arms and legs more. Chris yawned a couple of times, breaths better, temparature is lower, moves his legs when I tickle him. Arms & legs though flex inward and looks weird.

EEG results are: "The EEG background is composed of diffuse symmetrical irregular slow wave activity of both beta and theta frequency, in keeping with moderately severe global cerebral dysfuction of that seen in hypoxic-ischaemic cerebral injury post cardio-pulmonary arrest. There are no overt epileptiform features seen to suggest subclinical partial or generalised status".

ICU doctors prognosis is that Chris is unlikely to gain conciousness and likely to be on a persistent vegetative state (PVS), even if out of coma, they believe he will be severely disabled.

Sedatives are turned off at 5:00 AM for his third attempt at waking up. Chris right arm is much worse, temperature is high, trembling, legs shaking, heavy breathing, very very uncomfortable. Blood tests show low level of magnesium. Doctors start voicing their concerns about brain damage. EEG will be carried out the following day. While the CT's show the anatomy of the brain, EEG is for brain wave activity. Shivani came to visit.

Sedatives were turned off at 10 AM at second attempt at waking him up. Chris is bleeding profusely in his nose and mouth as a side effect of the blood thinner medication. Chris' left arm is completed bloated as drip was not inside his vein.Neuro registrar made an assessment at 12:00 PM and Chris responds to pain inflicted to him. Chris is visibly uncomfortable, sweats, coughs, reacts strongly to changes of position, lungs are full of fluids (infection?) Bleeding stops around early evening as blood thinner medication is cut off (heart condition less and less likely). All attention on his brain situation. Chris is put back on sedatives as he is visibly agitated and uncomfortable.

Erratic EGC and blood test with high level of certain enzimes seem to indicate potential obstruction of heart arteries. Chris ...   more »

I will never forget this evening. We were supposed to have dinner, with Katherine and Reto, and Chris was just ...   more »

On April 21, 2005 my husband Chris Barnes suffered a cardiac arrest after jogging. No cause for the heart failure was ever established. Chris was 32 years old at the time of his injury, an athlete, 100% healthy. Chris was resuscitated twice with the defibrillator but as a consequence he suffered an anoxic brain injury due to the lack of oxygen to his brain. This blog is a daily account of his progress since the accident. Chris' other website created by our friends: http://www.hopeforchris.com/

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