Sunday July 31st 2011

Hello All!!!
Stephanie Lowrey here. I am going to recount what has gone on the best that I can. There are many things that have taken place in the last couple of days. I will probably not be the only one posting but will be the main one. Thank you all for you continued love and support for our families! We are a unit and greatly appreciate each of you.
Your support has been overwhelming and encouraging beyond any of our expectations.


Sunday morning around 1:00 am Billy Wilkerson and Ron Bailey left a mutual friends house to go home. Billy was driving Ron's truck down Glenwood Road in Atlanta, Georgia. As of  now the story is a BMW was driving along side of them and side swiped them causing them to first spin and then flip 5 to 8 times.
Billy has signs of wearing his seat belt however was thrown from the truck and landed on his face. Ron continued to roll with the truck that eventually slammed into a telephone pole.

Billy's mother was contacted and told that he was unresponsive and was being taken to Grady Memorial in Atlanta. Ron was taken to the same place.

At 2:04 am I received a phone call from my sister that Billy had been in an accident. At 2:30 am I placed the call to Jill, Billy's wife and told her what had happened but did not know anything yet and would call as soon as I found some more information. At 3:00am Billy and Ron were still in the ER having a CT scan done and being moved to the neurological ICU.

By 5:00 am the hospital didn't know there head from there butts, telling both families two different things. First that they were in their rooms upstairs. Then to go up and find out they are not there and they are unsure where they are at this time. It was frustrating for both families who had not a clue what either Ron or Billy's current conditions were.

Ron was placed in his room first around 6:00am and the doctor came out to speak to his parents ,Ron Sr and Gwen. Ron had heavy trauma to his head. He was bleeding, had lots of pressure and his skull was busted open. They were concerned and need to place a small tube in his brain to let the fluid out.

Billy was still in the ER waiting to be taken to get a CT scan. At first we were concerned and upset he was just laying there. But the hospital needed to take care of the more heavily traumatized patience and would get to him. So that meant he was not as bad off as some others.

Billy was placed into his room around 8am while I was on my way to pick up Jill and the children from the airport. (Jill and the kids had been in Ohio and Jill had to fly home on the first flight in)

While I was out they told my parents that Billy had head trauma to his right ear and may never have hearing in that ear ever again. He also had bone particles floating in his ear.
Just a bit later they tell us..."Oops sorry we read you the wrong CT scan"
I felt horrible because I had already told her this news an then had to tell her the real news...

Billy suffered from a broken jaw and his top teeth had been shoved into his head. They will have to do a surgery to wire his jaw together in 3 weeks. He had several cuts on his face, he bit into his lip cutting it nearly in half. He had some blood and pressure on the brain and would need to monitor.

Jill and I made it back and my dad took Jill to see Billy. 

Later that day Ron's pressure on the brain was building and they had to go in and remove part of his skull to help with the swelling. It was a successful surgery that helped greatly with the swelling.

Billy and Ron both respond to painful stimuli.

Gwen and Ron Sr stayed the night with Ron. Jill and I stayed with Billy and the charge nurse was gracious enough to let my parents stay too. Usually they do not allow more than two people per night.
All the couches in the waiting room were taken so we had to go to the extra waiting room for ICU.
All they have are chairs and we ended up sleeping on the floor with a single blanket wrapped around us and a pillow. It was aweful but better than nothing. It did not matter what we had to do. None of us were leaving.