Thursday, July 30th - 7:00p

Tommy has been in the hospital since Monday with severe pain on the right side of his neck. As it turns out, recent scans revealed that while there was some healing (bone growth) of the c1 fracture on the left side, healing wasn't occurring on the right side and showing instability. The instability is the brain stem settling downward on his right side which isn't strong enough to hold things in place. Also, the ligaments seem to be damaged as first feared. Thus, putting Tommy at risk for further injury in the near-term. As such, some sort of immediate intervention is needed to repair and/or stabilize Tommy's break.

The potential interventional approaches came down to two choices - 1) surgery to fuse Tommy's c1, c2, and occipital bone, or 2) place Tommy in a halo and see if he can achieve some healing prior to a surgery like the one I just mentioned or possibly just a c1 c2 fusion which would give him a greater range of motion in his neck compared to the c1 c2 occipital bone fusion. After consultation with a number of neurosurgeons, we have decided to try the more conservative halo approach first and get Tommy stable. We are going to give him a chance to heal no matter how small that chance may be and for a shot at more movement. He will be getting his halo on in the next couple of days and he will then be able to come home as long as his pain is under control. Tommy is being unbelievably strong through all of this — he is one amazing young man.

I hate to keep asking you all this but please pray (or continue to pray) for Tommy's recovery. Bless all of you for your kindness to Tommy and the entire Mallon family through this trying time.

Tommy need for prayer...

Tommy is in the hospital. He was admitted in severe pain to the emergency room. His scans show he needs some type of intervention to stabilize him. He remains in the hospital and we will keep you posted when we know more...keep up the prayers for safety and healing.
Jeffrey Mallon turns sweet 16 today, July 30th......

Update: Thursday July 9th

Its been 7 weeks since Tommy injured his neck. He is progressing and doing well - both physically (although he is quite thin) and mentally. Next week Tommy will be having a scan of his vertebral artery that was damaged when he broke his neck. They will be looking for whether it has opened up (for normal/good blood flow) or, if it is occluding/closing which is okay too - if it is closed, we don't worry as much about a potential blood clot. Also, his other artery will pick up the slack and get sufficient blood to his brain.

On July 23rd, Tommy will have scans of his neck and other tests to determine his healing and the level of damage to his spine - mostly to ligaments. The doctors all believe the bone will heal and be okay, it's the ligaments that there is concern for as he needs these to be relatively unharmed so that his neck can be stable without his brace. If the ligaments are "too" damaged we will be contemplating a sensitive/difficult surgery. As such, we are continuing to pray for Tommy's full recovery.

Separately, just yesterday, Beth and I learned that our best friends from Denver son was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Like Tommy, Drew just graduated from high school and is a lacrosse player. He is a big strong kid and we know he (and his family) will beat this but if you have a little room in your prayers please give Drew and his family a mention.

God and all of you have blessed us so these past weeks. Thank you all so very much for your continued kindness and prayers.