Greg and Casey

The Fox family has had a great loss... Please keep this family in your prayers. Keep both Tom and Tricia and Greg and Cassie it is going to be a rough road ahead for all of them.

09/26/08 Email from Tom...

About 2:00 this morning my nephew Greg's house caught on fire and
what we know right now is that Greg and his wife Casey have been
taken to the burn center in Augusta, GA. They have been burned badly
and we are not sure as of yet (6:30) what exact condition they are
in. They have told my sister that they are stable but their throats,
lungs, hands and faces have been burned badly.

Their 3 year old daughter Breanna did not make it. It appears that
their dog Brindle was trying to get Breanna out of the house and both
of them did not survive.

This is devastating of course to our family and could really use a
tremendous amount of prayer right now. Please pray Greg and Casey and
the doctors and nurses. Also pray or my sister Kim and her husband
Don as they leave this morning to Augusta. Greg and Casey do not know
yet that Breanna has not made it, so pray especially for the families
as they get there.

Thanks so much for your prayers.



09/27/08 8:00 AM from Tom

I arrived in Augusta around 2 AM. Very scary place!!!! I drove almost 100 miles and couldn't find a gas station that had gas. Finally found a police car that could direct me to only 1 gas station that had gas, so I bought 2 extra gas cans and filled them up...very eerie feeling.



Slept okay and we are getting ready to head up to the hospital for a 9:00 visitation time. Greg is still in critical condition this morning and the concern is his lungs and heart now. He is breathing at about 85% on ventilation, and they would like to see that much higher. His surgery went well and they were able to get new skin grafted on his face, neck, arms and hands. Casey, his wife is doing much better and they are keeping her paralyzed and sedated because she was becoming very agitated last night. She wrote a note asking about Breann and Greg.


They did tell us this morning it is expected to get worse before it gets better. They are concerned of course about any kind of infection that may be in there. Most likely Greg and Casey will be sedated and on a ventilator for several days. Continue to pray for the family and everyone involved.


Alright, more updates today as we see how things are going. Again, thanks for everyone's prayers and calls. You are all amazing and it is through prayer that will make the difference.

09/27/08 5:45 pm from Tom

Well, it has been a pretty rough day. We were able to see Greg and Casey for a few minutes around 9:30 this morning and then had a long talk with his doctor's. They are giving Greg a 50/50 chance of making it through. Apparently his throat and lungs are much worse than we thought. They have been burned pretty badly. They are working desperately to keep him breathing. They are giving him 100% oxygen and using just about all of the ventilator that they can to keep him breathing. It is a waiting game right now. They are very concerned with the fluid that has been building in his lungs and also his kidney's. They are close to failing and may have to put him on kidney dialysis. They also are talking about doing a trache procedure to bypass his mouth/throat because they are so badly burned and bleeding into his lungs.


We really need prayers right now that his lungs will be good enough tomorrow so that they can go in and get some of the soot from the fire out of his lungs. Also pray that his kidney's keep working. They have told us Greg could most likely be in this ventilated state for 3 weeks to 6 months. We won't know for several days.


On a good note Casey is doing very well and breathing about 40% on her own. She also has responded alot to our talking to her and also to our touch. We are hoping she will be coming off the ventilator in the next couple days. Continue to pray for her lungs as well.


Greg's has pig skin on his face, ears, neck, arms, and hands. I was not prepared for what I walked into this morning and pretty much lost it. It was so hard to see him laying there like this.


The army has been amazing and have sent several sergeants, chaplain and some other folks and have been very helpful in this entire process. For those who don't know Greg is a sergeant in the army and a decorated soldier who has fought for our country in Iraq over the last few years. Greg had several issues he had been dealing with in regards to injuries he had incurred in battle.


Alright, I will update later tonight. Continue to pray for us, tomorrow we will be traveling to Columbia to see Brianna and talk with the coroner there.


That will be very tough, so your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated.


Love,


Tom


P.S. Here is a link to a story in their hometown. However, they were not released they were taken to the burn center here in Augusta..


http://www.wistv.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=2961936&h1=Child%20in%20Hopkins%20house%20fire%20dies%20from%20injuries%2C%20Jennifer%20Wilson%20reports&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=129533&LaunchPageAdTag=News&activePane=info&rnd=55983601

09/28/2008
Hey everyone,

Yesterday was a good day, we have been able to create a website
called http://www.gregandcasey.com

Thanks to my buddy Scott Bane for getting that up and running--you
are awesome dude!

We will try to post everything there so that you can get the updates,
any news, and be able to communicate back to the family.

Please pray for us today as we will be going over to see Brianna for
the first time today and talk with the coroner.

Thanks for all the support, calls and emails--it is so comforting to
know we are not alone in this.

Tom

Whirlwind...

Well it has been about a month now since school has started back up and I must say this has been the worst year for getting adjusted. I cannot get adjusted to the morning routine. One would not think that 15 minutes earlier would matter so much but it does. We cannot get our routine down so that we are having consistent devotion time before school. I am sad about this and am working on it but it is just so hard. My son does not seem to be adjusting well this year, and with so many uncertainties at his job my husband also has increased stress right now. It makes for some interesting times.

This week we had what was left of Ike come through with crazy 75 mph winds in OH of all places. It has caused much damage and chaos for those living here who are not used to such large scale events happening. There were so many stories where little or no damage happened, there were stories where houses and people were lost. It has been amazing to watch how people react through it all. But there is much to be learned from this wind storm that ripped through here.. being prepared (as my friend talked about in his blog http://www.live2give.info/), what we do when our daily lives are disrupted, who you can rely on when things are bad, and how things change from this point forward...

That gives me a lot to think about... How could I have been better prepared? What will change from this occurring this past week? Who do I need to thank for being there for us? I don't have some of those answers figured out just yet... And I want to somehow see how these principals can be applied to the others events in my life.

As both the issues and effects of Ike get resolved, and my family learns how to deal with the changes going on this past month I hope we all can learn something. As time goes forward I will be watching and blogging the changes so that maybe someone else can be helped knowing they are not alone in the storms that happen. Knowing that God is there through the rough times and the blessed times and that other people have gone through things too and how they dealt with it have helped me.