Morpheus

[mechanic]

We are all thinking about you every day Jeff. Hope you feel the love.

Hope you come back soon and tell me how ghey i am for humping your ankle like this. Then i will start a flame thread for us. Ahhh...good times.
 

[Nomak]

I am very sad to hear about this.

Its insane I even caught this actually.  I have been hooked on Warcraft the last few years and have not played AH or even checked this board in I cant remember how long.....years.  The thought crossed my mind to log on and have a look around and found this.....

Jeff and I were good friends for quite a while, we spent countless hours in the DA together, we would BS on the phone from time to time.  We talked about getting together IRL but never did mostly due to location.  We enjoy the same stuff..... Firearms, cars and bikes, females (duhh) and at the time AH.

I remember before his handle was Morph and he went by Jeffa.....

I remember him as well spoken and intelligent, always fun to be around and generally a good guy.  He could definitely be a pain in the bellybutton at times but I liked the fact that Jeff was never afraid to be Jeff.  I think the last time we spoke was summer of '05 <----shrug> not sure though.  Warcraft warp's the sense of space and time 

I have prayed for his full recovery and I will continue to do so.

Dave

[Die Hard]

Good news! Get well soon Levi! 

[ROX]

GREAT news--let's keep those  going


ROX

[SlapShot]

Where do I start ?

I don't know how many of you have ever seen a person with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) but I can assure you that it is scary to say the least. To know a person before they suffered a TBI and then to see them after the TBI is very sobering. At this point, Jeff is unable to walk, has a very hard time vocalizing and hard time concentrating on any one thing for an extended period of time.

Anyhow ... Mars01, BadBoy58, and I went to the Rehab Hospital. As we walked into the room, I wasn't really sure that it was Jeff until I recognized his tribal tattoo on his bicep. He has lost 50+ pounds and is now weighing in at 129 lbs.

Mars01 led the way and as he approached Jeff's bed, you could see that he did recognize Mars right away. Mars is a hard guy not to recognize ... 6 ft, 260 lbs, shaved bald head ... he looks like Mr. Clean on steroids. Jeff has spent the most amount of time with Mars flying in Mars's Pitt and filming a lot of Mars's flights. Jeff stretched out his hand and shook Mars's hand. Jeff then noticed (not recognized) BadBoy and I and presented his hand for us to shake, so he knew that there we new people in the room and felt obliged to shake our hands.

We started right out mentioning Aces High ... Aces High "handles " ... Squaddie names ... mentioned all the flights he had in the Pitts ... basically things that would invoke past happy memories. After awhile "we" got more comfortable and kept talking to him like we would if he were 100% ok.

Mars moved from the bedside and I slipped right in there so that Jeff could concentrate on me. Most of his concentration was to whoever was on the left side of his bed. I kept talking to him, busted his balls as I would despite his condition, and I got a smile out of him and he did say my last name loud and clear.

When BadBoy was at the bedside, Jeff tried real hard to say ... "BadBoy" ... but it came out like "BoBo", but it was obvious, to us, that he did recognize BadBoy.

Jeff is in a very "tactile" stage ... he reaches out for your hand, tries to pull you into him (despite losing all the weight, he still is strong as an Ox), kisses your hand or rubs your hand against his cheek, runs his hand over your face. He will do this for a couple of minutes or so and then roll over to the other side of the bed and rest for like 20 seconds and then rolls back and reaches for you again. I am thinking that he is trying so hard and it just mentally exhausts and frustrates him and he needs a short break to recharge.

We stayed for over an hour talking to him (busting balls) ... holding his hands, pulling against his pull, grabbing his feet ... just touching and stimulating him in different ways trying to make him feel that we were comfortable with him and he could be comfortable with us. At the very end of the visit, you could see that he was truly exhausted and when he rolled to the other side of the bed, he pretty much fell asleep, so we left.

We stayed awhile longer and visited with Jeff's girlfriend, who vacated the room for us, and talked with her for about 1/2 an hour. Jeff was traveling at a high rate of speed and didn't have a helmet on. He was traveling up hill, on a left hand corner, laid the bike down, rode the bike on it's side until it came in contact with the grass edge, which in turn flipped the bike horizontally, launching him into a huge oak tree. Jeff impacted the oak tree on his right side so that is where his head was hit, he broke his right collar bone and snapped his right femur in half.

Looking at him, you would never know that he was in such a terrible accident ... not a mark on him outside of the stitch scar on his scalp where they removed (and replaced) his skull bone to relieve the pressure on the brain.

I personally think that Jeff will be alright, but boy is it going to be a "long row to hoe". He is in an excellent facility and has a nurse/nurse's aid with him 24 x 7. Even when he has visitor's, they do not leave the room but rather pull to the back of the room and wait in a chair. He is already on a rehab regime so time will tell.

The 3 of us have decided that we are going to try and visit him every Tuesday.

[DamnedRen]

Good update... to continue....

Ren

[mechanic]

thanks for sharing that slappy.

[SKJohn]

Slapshot,

I had a former student who was in a traffic accident on graduation night.  The car he was riding in got t-boned right where he was sitting, and he also suffered a TBI and multiple fractures.  Several other students and I went to see him several times in the hospital while he was in a coma for most of the summer.  As the doctors expalined to us then, TBI patients need all the stimulation of all the senses they can get to help them return back to anything resembling their former, normal condition.

Even though he has trouble responding vocally and in words to you, the fact that he recognizes you and tries to communicate is a very good sign.  He may well be able to understand everything you say, but is unable to respond to you in a way you can understand.  Talking to him as you would normally is, as I recall, the best way to go about it to help his recovery.

My student eventually came out of the coma, and returned to school, although he was restricted to a wheelchair.  The last time I saw him (1999 IIRC) he was still having difficult in speaking and walking, but had improved tremendously compared to his earlier state.  As you said, Jeff "has a long row to hoe", but with help and care from friends like you and his family, I am hoping and praying for the best.  It's nice to hear that people from this game care enough for one another that they act like family in times of tragedy like this. We'll continue to keep Jeff in our prayers as well. 

[Mustaine]

Slap, Thank you for the update sir, it makes me terribly sad to hear the state he is in. I will pray for him even more. It is also uplifting that he recognizes and responds to visitors, I wish all the best for him. If you go visit him again let him know that tard Mustaine is praying for him.

[mensa180]

Thank you very much for the update Slap.

[Hajo]

thanks for the update.

let him know the community of aces high is pulling for  him!

[betty]

ty for the update slap...i cried while reading this cuz i couldnt imagine anyone going through what morphy has went through. even though this is a game, you meet people and make friends, i have concidered morphy a friend for a while now..along with morphy, stang, jaxxo, and hub was the first BK's i had met in game. i have high respect for them all and its hard to hear that a friend is going through this. thanks again for the update and jeff will always be in my thoughts and prayers. 

[texastc316]

morpheus doesn't know me, I don't know him, but I have dealt with 3 TBIs with family or friends in the past 2 years. its very hard to understand these. The brain does what it wants, no 2 injuries are the same. I'm pulling for you Jeff, and I'm praying for your friends and family. God Bless.

[TonyJoey]

 

[crims]

Thanks for the News Slap.