It’s been a busy week for Jordan. The following is from his mum in a series of messages sent out to family and friends and all those people who are following Jordan and sending messages of support.

13 January

Only a week ago Jordan was transferred onto a ward to begin his rehabilitation and he is going from strength to strength. From the boy who couldn’t sleep and was restless, anxious and agitated, Jordan has emerged 1 week on with words coming flooding back, his memory of friends intact and a fierce determination that he will not have skinny legs and he will learn to walk again. He is no longer on a gastro feed and is trying to put 3,000 calories per day into his body to regain his strength. He took his first steps on the parallel bars this week and has gone from needing full assistance getting into a wheelchair, to being able to pull himself up to a sitting position and making huge efforts to transfer himself into a chair. His balance and coordination need work but he loves a challenge so there’s no holding him back. He has not complained once other than to ask for the physio to be harder and he continues to smile.

15 January

For us as parents we just want everything to get better but no one can offer us that reassurance and so we are venturing on a journey into the unknown. One thing they can assure of though is that those who have a strong support network and close family have better outcomes in terms of recovery, so “Come on Jordan!” – we are behind you every step of the way.

[Duncan changed the #TimeToWakeUp hashtag to #ComeOnJordan and encouraged people on Twitter to send messages of support.  Here is a tiny selection – you can see others here]

The surgeon has made a special visit to see Jordan on two occasions since he came to the ward, fighting her way through all the lovely cards, pictures and letters just to talk him through the process and help him to understand. Jordan has become quite a star amongst staff here who all see daily how hard he works and how determined he is. His cheery lopsided smile and the wave of his hand lifts the spirits of everyone around him.

17 January

There are some incredible people in this hospital. Just now we have had a bedside visit from two key people who looked after Jordan for the first leg of this journey. A nurse and doctor just popped by to see for themselves how amazing he is. They cared for him in neurology critical care where he spent 12 days over the Christmas and new year period on a ventilator, before being transferred to Paediatric intensive care. The look of delight on their faces when they saw him sitting in bed greeting them with a cheeky grin and speaking easily to them. He looks so well compared to how he was 4 weeks ago, even just 1 week on since being transferred onto the children’s ward he has made a massive stride forwards chatting and laughing like “what is all the fuss about?”. 

So you see Jordan everyone loves you and can’t stop thinking about you and willing you to a full recovery. These nurses and doctors see hundreds of patients and families. You were the youngest patient ever treated on the adult neuro critical care ward and what an impression you made, so many nurses requested you on their shift and that was before you started to speak and smile and show your true fighting spirit. Keep going darling, together we will beat this. #‎ComeOnJordan

18 January from Duncan in a message to Jordan on the 1 month anniversary of his accident:

Hey Jordan I think I’m correct in saying that a month ago you got the rare experience of being run down by a car, had most of your clothes cut off, got to ride in an ambulance, AND a helicopter (flown by the future King of England), scared the crap out of your parents, family and friends and got to experience the best medical care the NHS has to offer. Over the last month you’ve had people rooting for you from around the world, you’ve been reported on in the news papers and your poor parents got to appear on ITV news (and did a marvellous job btw) and your family has been inundated with support from those around them. Your auntie Charlie filled the hospital with angel wings and sent you lots of video messages. Your grandmother and grandfather have filled the fridge at home and your sister Jasmin and brother Chris kept an eye on your sisters. And you……. Well mostly you slept. And got better. A bit each day. You’re a tough young man. And it’s a real pleasure to know you. On behalf of the 299,405 people on Twitter and the hundreds of thousands of people who read about you, or saw you in the media and all who shared your journey since your accident, we salute you. Be well. Keep going. You’re an inspiration. #‎ComeOnJordan

21st January 

Great to see Jordan smiling again thanks to a small gift from @Barnackchef and @SaintsRugby in the way of a signed Saints rugby shirt.  I happen to know that there’s also a signed one on it’s way up from @LSFCOfficial too.  If any other rugby clubs out there want to mail him a shirt / ball / something rugby related or if people just want to send him a card or message or something to spur him on, we’re sure he’d hugely appreciate it.  

Send them to: Jordan Dowen c/o Lynn Star Distribution, Manning House, Old Medow Road, Hardwick Industrial Estate, Kings Lynn, Norfolk PE30 4JJ

#ComeOnJordan

And lastly, this just posted by Jordan’s mum, Jo, a few minutes ago which she wanted to share with everyone.  For me personally, the best news ever for a Friday afternoon:

 

22nd January

Thank you to Northampton Saints for giving Jordan a double reason for his huge smile. He was asking to go home as soon as he was able to make me understand his words and I promised him I would get him home as quickly as I could. Originally we didn’t expect to be discharged til well into February, then his discharge date was agreed for today (Friday) but as he was no longer taking any medications which couldn’t be prescribed in the community, and as he has exceeded everyone’s expectations in terms of his physical recovery we pushed for an early discharge on Wednesday afternoon. As I packed up his belongings and all the motivational cards and messages he was presented with that shirt and Boom that spontaneous wide smile said it all.
Jordan is on his feet now and working on independent walking albeit with an elbow crutch to steady him. He has a wheelchair for longer distance, as his balance and coordination are a work in progress but physio will continue to work on this with him.
We had our first meal last night as a complete family in our own home and you really can’t put a price on that feeling. So proud of all our children and thankful to everyone who has travelled with us on this journey.
Based on the volume of food eaten last night we should soon get the missing 20kilos back on those muscles.
Today, 15 hours sleep in his own bed at home he looks relaxed. We are planning to take a couple of days out of circulation to settle back a into home routine. Jordan is seeing visitors in short spurts and we will soon be out and about so watch this space.
Jordans success so far is down to his high levels of fitness before the car collided with him, his strength of character and determination, incredible support and care provided by an amazing medical team and the intense power of positivity sent his way by everyone including those complete strangers who have taken him into their hearts. He has a diffuse axonal brain injury which will take time to adjust to and may mean he does some things differently or sounds different to the way he did before.

Jo

 

Posted: 14th January 2016

Although this is coming from my work blog, it isn’t a One related piece of news – it’s a personal post, but for reasons of ease it made sense to post it here for the time being.

As you may be aware, just before Christmas, Jordan Dowen, the 15 year old son of my oldest friend, Sherridan, was hit by a car whilst cycling to school on the last day of term. He was airlifted to Addenbrookes hospital and remained in a coma until the new year.  Like many people who know the family and know Jordan, I felt the need to do something to support everyone during this very difficult time.

Given Jordan is a fanatical rugby player, we decided to try to get people, including the rugby community, to tweet messages of support using the hashtag #timetowakeup.

Over 200,000 messages (now over 260,000), retweets, offers of support came from people around the world including, family friends, rugby fans, players, international players, olympians, squads, strangers, fire chiefs, boxers, celebrities and the media.  It  really helped Jordan and his family over this very difficult time to know that people were thinking of them.

Many of the messages were deeply moving, this being one example:

After he came out of the coma just after New Year’s Day, there was a bit of a ‘what now’ moment…..but I hope the following will give you an update, inspire and humble you, but above all, make you want to continue to support Jordan and his family with messages of support.

So 3 things we ask of you:

1. Follow @dowen_jordan and his Mum @joannedowen and Dad @SherridanDowen  (this makes it easier to keep you updated)

2. Start using the hashtag #ComeOnJordan in all your tweets

3. Send him a message of support starting Hey @dowen_jordan…….including #ComeOnJordan

and if you really have the time, tweet him a video message of support giving your name too.

This was shared from Jordan’s Mum, Jo, to friends and family:

I thought I’d share with you all how remarkable and determined Jordan is, yesterday out of the darkness he showed us his undeniable fighting spirit and I must say our spirits soared. I’m sure there will be many more days of setbacks ahead but we are so immensely proud of how far he has come in this journey.

Lying in his bed he looks almost back to normal and I just want to sit looking at him and wrap him up and keep him safe. The staff at addenbrookes have other ideas though, he is responding to some fairly complex instructions now, we don’t know what level of understanding he has right yet because it’s still very early days but he’s a bright lad and he can guess what we are after a lot of the time. He is very emotional and agitated and has difficulty sleeping, I spent an entire night on the ward alongside him yesterday just stopping him from disconnecting feed tubes and pulling out his central line in his neck and trying to get himself off the bed. He has been having nutrients through a vein because his stomach hasn’t been working and he is frail and weak. He has lost a lot of weight.

He can’t speak and communication is difficult because he can’t unravel long sentences and his attention is varied. If too many people talk he gets overwhelmed and agitated. He doesn’t appear to recognise many things. He forgets where he is and is startled and gets emotional often.

He can’t sit up unsupported and has a weakness in his left side. His coordination and balance is poor.

All of this we are assured (and we believe), will be improved over time. He needs to have another scan which we are working on preparing him for emotionally because the team do not want to sedate him again.

Yesterday the physio team came and took him in his bed to another area for some work. They explained to him in very simple terms that they were going to try getting him to his feet. We watched with a mixture of heartache and pride as our beautiful, frail boy listened and responded. He dragged his body around and pushed with all his might to a safely supported position swaying and wobbling on the edge of his bed, his head hung loosely down in front of him and then he reached forward and using another surface he pulled his body up and strained and grimaced himself into a standing position, every ounce of his body shaking and his head heavy, he then lifted his head up and the physio exclaimed at how tall he is, and he smiled with his eyes and his lopsided mouth before shakily sitting back down with help from the team.

He then stayed sitting and supported while a rugby ball was thrown towards him and he grasped it. Then he was asked to pass the ball back and without a second to process this he grasped the rugby ball each end and automatically tried to spin pass it back! It was exhausting for him and he only did it the one time. But his determination continued, after a wobble when he became emotional and needed to lie down he gestured thumbs up to go again and continued pulling and straining himself to a stand another 3 times.

The team have explained that automatic responses will be easier for Jordan, so in terms of speech he has managed “mum, get off, Please and yes”. These mainly come with agitation and anger when the brain neutrons fire more quickly. He can’t get his words together. He knows what they sound like in his head but the messages aren’t reaching the physical vocal functioning area of his brain. The rest will come with time and lots of hard work but to see him automatically respond to a request to pass the ball back with a rugby pass was the most amazing feeling. Our son is in there and he is determined to show us with spirit and guts.

And this from me to Jordan’s Dad, Sherridan, after I went to see them:

Hi Sherridan, I came in trepidation and hadn’t planned on seeing Jordan as I thought it would add to his stress, but to see him smile and to see you goof about and Jo be her normal loving Mum self was simply a deeply moving and beautiful thing to see. You have all come so far in such a short space of time and I know you’re on a journey with a lot of unknowns, but I truly believe that you absolutely have a shot at getting where you all want to be.  I am absolutely committed to helping you all do that in whatever way I can help Jordan or you all. Keep the faith and  remember that willpower renews every day. X

So what now?

The support and messages from people, especially from the rugby community, has been what’s kept their spirits up.  I printed off photographs of 1,736 messages on Twitter and took those up so Jordan can be reminded of all those people out there willing him on.

We want this to continue right up to the time we hope he steps back on to a rugby pitch.

So to recap: 3 things we ask of you:

1. Follow @dowen_jordan and his Mum @joannedowen and Dad @SherridanDowen  (this makes it easier to keep you updated)

2. Start using the hashtag #ComeOnJordan in all your tweets

3. Send him a message of support starting Hey @dowen_jordan…….including #ComeOnJordan

and if you really have the time, tweet him a video message of support giving your name too.

Thanks for all your support.