Video Update from Kane and Ashlynne!

From Ashlynne:

Update on Kane!

Unfortunately, his weight bearing restrictions were not lifted this past week and so he was transferred to a skilled nursing facility. 

This has been really him, as it’s not a nice facility and the fellow residents are all much sicker than he is. It’s not a healing environment for sure. Please pray for his (and my) spirits to remain grateful and hopeful.

I’m working to get him moved out of here as soon as possible, but there are a lot of hurdles due to insurance and the level of care “medically necessary” for him, in addition to his weight-bearing status and all the downstream repercussions of each move.

He’s still doing well physically and cognitively, although not progressing here as much as he was at the hospital. We’re working to do as many of his exercises and therapies as we can to keep him progressing!

One nice thing about a place like this is we can take him out, so we plan to go to church together tomorrow. We’re all very excited about this!! I see lots of mini trips out of the nursing home in his future. 

Please continue to pray for all of us… even at this early stage, this marathon is getting exhausting. Pray for good spirits, hard work, and hope and trust in God’s good plan during this time!

From Ashlynne:

So many of you have been asking for an update on Kane! It’s really amazing to know you all are still praying and caring for our family. We’ve been so busy up here with Kane’s rehabilitation and trying to incorporate the kids back into our life.

Today marks 5 weeks since the wreck, and Kane is a different person than when he came in here. His injuries totaled multiple fractures (I think a total of 5 main ones) in the left leg, a dislocated knee in the right leg (dislocated as in the muscles holding his knee together sheered out the side so nothing was holding his knee in place), broken left wrist and shattered fingers/metacarpals, a torn aorta, a torn left carotid artery, vision loss in his left eye, and a traumatic brain injury (TBI). While in surgery, he had fatty embolism stroking from the loose bone marrow in his blood stream (from the long bone breaks). They estimate 20-30 small strokes. That left him in a coma for about a week and a “minimally conscious” state for another 5-7 days. The things we heard were “if/when he wakes up, he will never be the same man again. There might be moments of lucidity but he won’t be the same person.” When he did wake up, due to the strokes on the left side of his brain, he was completely unaware of his right side (the only arm unaffected by the initial injury, he then couldn’t find or didn’t know existed). You could stand on the left side and say something and he’d smile… walk over to the right side, say something and he wouldn’t even acknowledge your existence. He was completely nonverbal, couldn’t write, read, or remember numbers. He had a feeding tube, and pretty major memory loss.

Fast forward to today and Kane is in his wheelchair (which he transferred to with his fancy slideboard all by himself), at the sink, doing his morning hygiene, talking with me about the day ahead, and reading funny fb memes (although incorrectly 😅🤣). He even read part of the Bible this morning (again mostly incorrectly). He has been exceeding everyone’s expectations! We’ve had drs come in here who haven’t seen him for a couple weeks and be brought to instant tears, seeing Kane sitting up and talking and laughing and just being himself. Every person says “he’s a miracle” or “I just can’t believe your progress.” Regularly we hear the words “fantastic, unbelievable, incredible, amazing.” 

I knew he was the same person early on when he was barely talking when one of the times he was put into a wheelchair, he spent an extensive amount of time feeling around on all the parts of the chair to try and adjust it, and stated “Oh, I see. The bracket is affixed.” 

He still has expressive aphasia, meaning he understands everything but can’t always find the right words or phrases to communicate. There are still some times (particularly when he’s tired) where he gets confused. His memory is definitely coming back! His spirits are so great! When the kids are around, he swaps into instant Dad mode and corrects, plays with, and encourages them. He thanks me multiple times a day for encouraging him and helping him. He prays with us at mealtime and bedtime. He pontificates and philosophizes about everything from acknowledging his life is not his own to what he’s going to do for work to the “problems with our generation.” 

It’s hard to explain his cognitive deficits. One of his therapies the other day was to try and get to the Emergency Department without help, using the signage in the hospital. This was extremely difficult for him. I’m not sure if it’s the vision or reading or just cognitively a challenge at this point. But that’s where he’s at. He struggles with words and letters and numbers still. He’s improving tremendously every day though. I’m convinced if he had to try that assignment again today, he’d be able to do it. Every day, he makes leaps and bounds, but he still has a long way to go cognitively.

As far as physically, he’s still not allowed to bear weight with either leg or his left arm. He’s worked so hard to find and strengthen his right arm, and he now does everything with it, although it’s still weak. He lost somewhere around 35 lbs, and if you know Kane, you know he didn’t really have that to lose, so a big goal right now is getting lots of calories and building back muscle (although he can only really do that with his right arm right now.) 

They’ve decided to just keep him here at Sacred Heart until he’s weight-bearing in at least one more limb and then he can move to St. Luke’s which is an in-patient rehab here in Spokane. We moved the boys up here and have started trying to do more “normal life” things together, like meals together, going to church, “tray dinner” in the hospital, visiting dad, and me coming to see or get them every day. Their little worlds have been completely turned upside down, and the longer this goes on, the less they’re believing that “dad will come home again.” Please be praying for their hearts. That they’d be brave and courageous and trusting in the Lord during this time. Please pray for me and Kane as we navigate how to be good parents right now and how to give them what they need. 

I’m probably missing so many things because there are like 10 new updates every day, but just know Kane is making incredible progress, he still has a long way to go, and this has been very our family, albeit growing and sanctifying. 🙏❤️‍🩹

The “low stimulation” orders have been lifted and visitors are welcome/encouraged to reach out and set up a visit. Some of you have asked if you can bring a meal, so reach out if you’d like to do that and we can set that up too! Thank you all for your love for our family during this time 🖤🖤

Above all, thank you for your prayers. 🙏 We KNOW God is hearing them and blessing our family immensely… His love for us has been so evident through you all.

From Ashlynne:

Since his surgery on Wednesday, Kane has been making big steps each day.

Trying to feed himself with his left hand and working really hard to shake hands and do things with his right hand. 

Today, he wiggled his right toes and flexed that foot which he hasn’t been able to do since the surgery and when I asked if he could see clearly out of his right eye while covering his left eye, he confirmed that he could.

Speaking is still a real struggle but I noticed this morning, he was trying a lot more than he has been. I asked him if he wanted to practice saying “I love you” for when the boys come to see him and he did… it was a LOT of work but he got the phrase out probably 4 times! That’s the most he’s said by far!

I’m sincerely so proud of his hard work. I explained to him how he has to keep practicing to find the brain pathways again and he has continued (all on his own) to practice trying to use his right hand for things and trying to vocalize (which is still the most frustrating for him). I can see him putting in a LOT of work to heal and be here for his family. 

His spirits are still so sweet and loving and strong and determined. 

We will likely be transferring to another (in between) facility early this coming week. We’re trying to keep him close to home for this next 4-6 week period until he can be cleared for in-patient rehab. 

Thank you for continuing to pray for and with us. God has been so so incredibly kind to us, and He really does hear and answer our prayers!

From Ashlynne:

He's out of surgery!!

It went great and he's already awake and responding to commands/questions.

God is so good to us.

Now just recovery and rehab.

(I say "just recovery and rehab" as if that isn't years and years of work)

Anyway, so happy he's one step closer to healing!

From Ashlynne (Tuesday, August 13, 2024)

Today marks two weeks since the wreck

In the wreck, Kane's right knee came completely dislocated and the outside soft tissue of his leg sheered entirely. When they tried to put it in a temp brace, the knee just kept falling out, because it's entirely unsupported. That's why he had this external fixator put in... those rods are screwed into his bone to hold his knee in place until they could do surgery.

Surgery is finally scheduled for tomorrow. Please pray with us that it doesn't cause further setbacks in his brain healing. Last time he went under, he had strokes and was in a coma for a week.

They're still working on facilities and rehabs, but our lack of medical insurance is a hang up. Please pray for them to work with us and that we get into a good facility for him!

From Ashlynne:

Over the weekend, Kane pulled his feeding tube out and the drs initially wanted to put it back in right away. But thanks to some persistent nurses, we were able to convince speech therapy to come in and give him a swallow test and he passed!! So he got to eat two full meals today and has been taking all his medications orally! This is so huge. He officially has no assistance for breathing, eating, etc. 

PT and OT have gotten him into a wheelchair a few times and today he sat in it for 2 hours and our awesome nurse took us outside! He basked in the sun for 45 minutes! That was his first time outside in two weeks! ❤️‍🩹 So healing! 

All in all, he’s progressing more each day and we couldn’t be more thankful for another chance to love our guy! 

His tenacity and strength are so inspiring! His good attitude through such an incredibly hard trial is hard to fathom. I truly couldn’t be prouder of my husband. 

While these positive updates are exciting and relieving, the challenges ahead for our family (truly for each individual of our family) are real and aren’t going away any time soon. Please continue to pray for us. It’s not a small thing! Prayer is so powerful and I really believe it’s why Kane is still here today.

From Ashlynne:

I know I keep saying it, but I can’t believe how much support has been overflowing for our family over the last week and a half… (feels like it’s been a month 😵‍💫) and I’m so thankful!

I’ve taken so long to update mostly because I’m so tired by the time I’m alone, that’s not what my brain wants to do. 😰🤣

Kane is still waking up and is emerging as himself, which is the BEST part! 🙏🙌🏼 we’re seeing his sense of humor in what he smiles and laughs at and his mannerisms like running his fingers through his beard and his furrowed brow when someone asks him a dumb question like “are you comfortable?” 🤣

He’s put his hand on my face and stroked my chin and cheeks with his fingers and puts his hand out to hold mine ❤️‍🩹 He’s still the tender, loving man we all adore.

To be clear these things aren’t all the time. They’re small moments of him emerging from his deep coma. He kind of has three stages that I’ve noticed:

-Asleep and unaware 

-Awake but not “present”

-Awake and at least somewhat understanding of his situation/environment

At risk of sounding like he’s a puppy doing tricks, I do want to share some of Kane’s progress with you guys because I know so many have been praying and it’s helpful to have a good concept of what’s actually going on.

Today, he was able to vocalize “yes” a few different times and “no” once or twice! This is HUGE!! And it was incredible to hear his voice again 🥹❤️‍🩹 He also is working with therapy on swallowing water and chewing ice chips and he’s making good progress there.

Even in his “present” moments, Kane still has a severe traumatic brain injury so the things he communicates don’t always a make sense… so that’s another factor. The more awake he becomes, the clearer those deficits will be to all of us. 

He still has to have his knee operated on and it’s tentatively scheduled for early next week. Pray for that, as we’re all a bit shell-shocked about putting him back under. 😅 God didn’t bring him this far to fail now, but it’s still another thing to work through mentally.

After the knee repair, we will be looking at transferring him to another facility. There are a lot of factors there so we don’t have any decisions made yet.

Thank you thank you all again for your continued support. We still have an incredibly long road ahead of our family, and knowing we have this community has been so encouraging. Love you all! 🖤

From Ashlynne:

Kane had a really long day of interactions and starting the process of waking up.

It's not like the movies. He isn't talking or sitting up or any of those things. But he tracks us with his eyes and he understands (but only in part) what's going on. It's difficult for him to process his reality... where we've had a week, he's had a day and we're still not 100% sure how much he understands.

There's still so much rejoicing to do, but this is a marathon.. not a race.

Small, baby steps and lots of rest in between bursts of activity (or even just awareness) are required.

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There’s still so much rejoicing to do, but this is a marathon… not a race. Small, baby steps and lots of rest in between bursts of activity (or even just awareness) are required.

With that in mind, we’ve set up a visiting calendar and are asking people who want to come see him to limit it to 20 minutes and sign up on the calendar so he’s not overwhelmed with visitors. He’s still in a low stimulation environment, as his brain and body are working so hard to heal. So, low voices, low lights, limited length visits, and lots of rest in between.

The visitors are really helpful and he loves it so definitely continue! Just please use the calendar to let us know you plan to come by.

https://calendly.com/smashlynne/20min?month=2024-08

From Ashlynne:

Kane is starting to wake up! Our God is so good and He's made an opportunity to really show off.

Kane has started tracking us with his eyes and even moved his mouth like he was trying to say something.

My Papa said "Kane! I'll cut that beard off" and Kane smirked... he then went on to tell a story about Kane being a redneck, and Kane lit up with a huge grin!

The whole room cheered!

Gods bringing him back to us, and I couldn't be more grateful. The staff here is great but have not been hopeful until today. We knew better than that, though!

God will be glorified and there's no way we can point at this and say it's anything other than His powerful hand.

We love you, Kane!

From Ashlynne Berglund:

I wish I could say there's an update, but there's really not much. Kane's sleeping. His body obviously needs this for his healing, and we're more than happy to wait for him.

A CT did show that he also has a tear in his left carotid artery and a blood clot formed there. He's on blood thinners and a low stimulation environment to help prevent the clot traveling to his brain and causing more damage. As far as the team here is concerned, that's all the treatment that needs and they re expecting it to heal on its own.

For the first time today, Kane responded to pain or reflex stimulation, by pulling his feet and hands away. That's really great progress because they've been trying to get that response for several days now. We'll take it!

He also has a cough that really seems to bother him. He's had a couple breathing treatments and a chest xray shows his lungs are fine at the moment. I personally think it's the same allergy cough he had before all this happened so I'm going to push them to try addressing it that way.

We have hope, lots of hope. From my understanding, this type of injury healing is a marathon, not a race. We have to give Kane more time, and we have to keep coming before God boldly, unafraid, and believing that He will heal him. God hears EVERY prayer, so thank you all for joining with us in intercession for Kane.

We have received multiple requests to share other ways to send financial support to Kane and Ashlynne. 

Venmo: @Ashlynne-Berglund

Zelle: 7024969394 (ASHLYNNE BERGLUND)

PayPal: @KaneandAsh (Ashlynne Postma)

Cash App: $AshlynneBerglund

On Tuesday, while riding into Moscow, ID, Kane was intercepted by a oncoming vehicle making a left-hand turn onto a side road. He was ejected from the motorcycle, and thrown into a second vehicle.

Kane was airlifted with numerous injuries including multiple compound fractures. Upon arrival, it was discovered that his aorta was torn and the injuries more significant than realized. He was airlifted again to another hospital, and immediately operated on to place a stint in his heart. 

Once his heart was stable, Kane was admitted to the ICU and prepared for extensive surgeries to begin repairing his shattered limbs.

Wednesday morning, Kane's operations took over 10 hours during which time his left leg was reassembled via an internal structure of rods, screws, etc (his femur alone was in 5 pieces, and both the tibia and fibula sustained multiple breaks), and his left wrist and hand were pieced back together, with the surgeon stating he did his best to replace each metacarpal in such a way that Kane's fingers point the right direction once healed.

During the operations, the team discovered that Kane's right knee was completely out of place due to most, if not all, the ligaments being torn away, including the PCL. This left his leg incredibly unstable which was concerning as this injury had not been noted originally and his leg had not been supported properly. The surgeon placed pins and a cage to create structural support for the right leg, and has communicated multiple times that he is concerned there may be damage to Kane's right hip but further imaging isn't possible right now due to the cage.

While it is heartbreaking to see this incredibly strong, kind, loving family man so shattered, the most concerning and pressing issue is that Kane has yet to wake up from his surgery.

Through an extremely unprofessional series of events, Ashlynne (his wife) spent 12 hours waiting/asking for the results of a "STAT" MRI yesterday, only to be told in passing as the Dr was leaving for the day that Kane has suffered extensive brain injuries to include 2 contusions, about 25 small strokes on the left side of his brain due to fat embolisms from the broken femur, and a TBI. 

Today, another Dr. confirmed those findings and added that Kane also experienced a Diffuse Axonal Injury which is the shearing (tearing) of the brain's long connecting nerve fibers (axons) that happens when the brain is injured as it shifts and rotates inside skull. Essentially, his brain hemispheres moved in opposite directions, causing micro-tears. This also put pressure on blood vessels, causing them to be closed off, resulting in reduced blood flow.

Currently, Kane is not intubated or sedated, but he is in a self-induced coma and the results of these brain injuries are currently unknown, other than signs of a stroke on the right side of his body.  

The trauma team has indicated they have every reason to believe that Kane will wake up because he is young and healthy, but the timeframe is unknown, and there is no way of knowing if he has sustained any long-term damage or deficits. 

The physical injuries he sustained are significant (all 4 limbs + his heart) but this new development is the one weighing most heavily. 

We beg your prayers that Kane will be whole and well when he opens his eyes, that his body will heal well, and that Ashlynne and the boys will be comforted during this time of waiting. 

Also, the outpouring of love, financial support, and tangible assistance from Kane and Ashlynne's church, community and all of you is overwhelming to say the least.

We are so thankful for the care and kindness shown to this precious family as they navigate one of the hardest things anyone can ever face.