Prayers for Lili

[PMitchell]

I met Lili (Lelania) on a bike tour of Tuscany in '06. She rode a Ducati with the Portland Club. In Italy she was on an F650. We became bike buddies and continued the friendship by e-mail especially when she returned to Italy. She is a linguist and wanted to perfect her language skills.

Last year she married a young man in Italy who is also a Ducati enthusiast and she was starting a new life in Italy before middle age.

Sadly, I received this from her son over the week end. I am sure prayers would be appreciated. I called and spoke to Nathan's wife as soon as I received the e-mail and there is no change in her condition. With God's grace she will awake and tell us all of another adventure!

This is Nathan, Lili Martinez-Olberding Baldelli's son. I need to share some bad news; my mom has been in a serious car accident in Italy Wednesday afternoon. She is in critical condition in a coma at a hospital in Pavia (pronounced PaVEEa) and has already undergone two successful operations to repair injuries to her internal organs and lungs. One more operation will be performed to set her broken arms.

The most severe of her injuries are to her brain. There are no specific areas where damage has occurred. Rather, it is general brain damage of an unknown quantity. If she wakes, she will likely not be the same. However, we do have hope. Her condition has not changed since the accident, which in critical cases such as these is a good sign as change this early is not usually good change.

We request and thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I apologize for informing you through email as you may well know my mother has many friends and we just don't have all of her contact information. We got all of your email addresses from forwards my mother has sent

p.s. Her oldest son is in Harm's Way in Iraq and we are not sure that he knows of her accident. Nathan is en route to Italy to be with his mother

[Steve_R]

Thanks for letting us know Paul. Adding her to my prayer list.

[katnapinn]

Thanks for letting us know Paul. Adding her to my prayer list.
same here Paul ... Prayers are sent her way.

[cfell]

So sad for Lili... tough accident..

Prayers right away...

[gunny]

Will include her and her family in our prayers.

[BennyBob]

Prayers said for Lili and her loved ones.

[ibbones]

And another.

[PMitchell]

No update yet. Her son should be there later today.
Also, haven't heard about her husband's condition either. He is a photovoltaic specialist and just started a new job.

[PMitchell]

I started this thread on June 1st and just received a significant update through the Ducati Pacifica site in Portland OR.

Thanks to those who have supported in any way this courageous couple and their recovery

"Finally... An update!! But first I wanted to take a second to thank everyone for
your wonderful generosity, phone calls, prayers, thoughts and friendship. We are
overwhelmed and speechless with your kindness and I don't think we can ever
properly thank you all enough. All of you were so wonderful at the event we
attended and welcomed us with open arms. We will never forget that day! It was
amazing to be there and be around the people and Ducatis Lili (Momma) loves!
Again we cant thank you all enough for everything! I can definitely see why Lili
chose you all as friends!

With love and Keep praying!!
Shawna

Nathan's update:

I'm back home from visiting my mom and Fabio. Here's a summary.

Fabio is doing alright. I saw him once. He has some remaining organ injuries
from which is expected to recover, though this recovery will take time. He is
breathing with the help of a machine and his pancreas is leaking. Once his lungs
heal, he will be able to breathe on his own; the pancreas, on the other hand,
leaks fluids that are very dangerous to the rest of his body and this is the
reason he has been kept sedated. This should be healed soon. When I saw him, he
was asleep and had himself a good yawn every minute or so :-)

His family are absolutely wonderful people. And wow can his momma cook!!

My mom has effectively healed from all of her injuries except those to her
brain. She has been self-sufficient with all internal bodily functions for
almost a week now. The day I went home, she left the ICU (where her visiting
hours were 1 hour every day) for the Infirmary (where visiting hours are much
longer) because she got a minor cold. The ICU people said it was absolutely
nothing to worry about but that they'd prefer that a cold didn't spread in the
ICU. Is it irony that I left on the day her visiting hours were extended or is
it just reality being a jerk? :-)

Brains are sensitive organs. Of all things internal to the human body, they are
the most sensitive, most important, and they heal the slowest by far. Where skin
or stomach can simply replace dead cells, brain cells are far more precious.
Where veins may break and regrow in a matter of days, synapses reestablish
themselves slowly, and even then only under conditions that medicine has yet to
understand.

My mother can open her eyes, look around, pucker her lips, yawn, cough, cry,
twitch, move her arms, legs, hands, shoulders and jaw. She can breathe,
circulate blood, regulate body chemicals of all types and sleep.

She cannot definitively respond to requests. If you snap your fingers across her
field of view, she does not follow. If you push her or pinch her, she does not
retract. If you lift her arm, it will drop like a brick. She does seem to cry
and cough much more when we visit her in her room than when we watch her from
the video camera. Once, we came in to find her with her eyes fixed on the TV;
this was the only time the TV had been on during visiting hours. She watched for
several minutes before looking away during our visit. This is especially notable
because her eyes normally wander around the room to her right side; the TV is
directly in front of her and high on the wall.

Today marks four weeks since the accident; in fact, four weeks exactly a couple
of hours after this posting. The doctors say that any- if any- recovery is
expected within the first year; beyond the first year, recovery is much, much
slower. There are stories of people coming out of comas after 20 years; there
are stories of people coming out after 3 months. There is absolutely no telling,
though scans indicate my mother has a very tough fight ahead of her.

She has the good fortune of being in Italy. While no one knows much about the
human brain, Italy has the second best medical record in the world, right next
to France. She is currently on the waiting list to be transferred to a
neurological rehabilitation center in Coreggio, 15 minutes outside of her town.
Their primary goal will be to elicit a response from her. If she can be
classified as "responsive," her situation is much improved. That's a big hurtle
for her but not insurmountable.

Beyond this point, news will be slow. We will post as Fabio wakes up and heals;
we will post any milestones my mother makes; but do note that these things move
at a glacial pace. She is surrounded by friends and family and has a regular
stream of visitors, so however awake she may be, that's how much she knows she
is loved. I told her several times of all her friends reading this that love and
care for her; the first day I told her this, she shed tears until after we left.
She loves nothing more than having friends. Hey, studies indicate that having
friends increases longevity, so it can't be a bad thing!

So for a little while, that'll be about it. Maybe in a week or so, Fabio will
start to wake up. That'll likely be the next news. Until then, thank you for
reading.

-Nathan"

This was the info on the crash incident

The events of the accident are not perfectly known. A few articles have appeared online, all in Italian that I've seen, and seem to indicate that a Fiat Pronto hit a Nissan van, which in turn hit the Fiat Panda that my parents were riding. The Panda rolled several times, clearing a guard rail and landing in a field. An ongoing investigation is underway to recreate the accident.

The other two individuals involved in the accident who went to the hospital are in better condition than that of my parents.

We'd like to thank everyone for their well wishes, thoughts and prayers. My mother knows so many people that she isn't just popular, she's downright FAMOUS! We will update this site regularly as new information comes in from Italy.

This was the earliest report

The current status of my step father Fabio, who we all love very much and who is an entirely welcome part of our family, is serious but stable. Doctors expect a full recovery.

The current status of my mother is not so well. She is in critical but stable condition; they are not sure whether she will awake from her coma but are fairly certain that if she wakes up, there will be serious long-term brain damage. Only time will tell, though they do say that the first 72 hours are when the worst changes happen and in my mother's case, she has been stable since her preliminary surgeries upon arrival at the hospital.

The information we've been given about my mother comes through translators and from various doctors, some of whom have worked directly with my mother and others who are reading her chart. The information we've been given about my step father is from his friends and family. At times, we've received slightly conflicting information; in the case of details about the accident, the investigation is on-going and facts are evolving as more is learned.

Fabio has two broken legs and numerous internal injuries. We understand that the worst was a ruptured spleen. All of his injuries have been treated and he is currently in a hospital in Piacenza. They have tried waking him numerous times but he gets agitated upon waking, possibly having to do with the tube that they can't quite yet remove from his throat, so they are keeping him sedated until further notice. Again, a full recovery is expected.

My mother was flown by helicopter to San Matteo Hospital in Pavia which is highly reputed for its intensive care unit. She sustained heavy damage to her intestines, her ribs punctured her lungs, one broken arm and severe head trauma has left overall brain damage, two small lesions on the top of her brain and a more serious lesion on her brain stem.

Operations to repair her intestines, lungs and arm were all successful. It appears that her body will make a full recovery.

Her brain, however, is an unknown quantity. It is very likely that long term damage will be heavy; whether she will wake from her coma is unknown, but not terribly unlikely; should she awake, she will most likely be either "severely disabled" (unable to make most or any movement on her own) or vegitative.

Ongoing CT scans over the next week or two will provide the data the doctors need to better understand her future.

[BennyBob]

Thanks for the update. We will continue to remember Lilli and Fabio in our prayers.

[PMitchell]

This if from a post at Ducati Pacifica- Lili's Ducati Club in Portland.

This event started in May and her husband Fabio was just released from the hospital. From other correspondence Lili is now communicating via Facebook and in all of her three languages, English, Spanish & Italian!

Thanks again to all who have said a prayer for this couple.


"Lili is improving every day !! Fabio left the hospital last Friday and
since he started to go to see her every day, she is doing great. Her left side
is not paralyzed anymore !! She moves her left leg and her left hand fingers. It
is just the beginning but it was a surprise ! And now ten minutes a day she
stands with the help of a tool which supports her upper part of the body. And
more: she remembers a lot , past and present!!! It seems a miracle ! You will
see when you come !
I will write more soon,
Ciao,
Daniela"

http://i40.tinypic.com/8zjinr.jpg

[gunny]

Way Cool!

[free2ride]

She and her family are in my prayers.

[jayjacobson]

....."Lili is improving every day !! Fabio left the hospital last Friday and
since he started to go to see her every day, she is doing great. Her left side
is not paralyzed anymore !! She moves her left leg and her left hand fingers. It
is just the beginning but it was a surprise ! And now ten minutes a day she
stands with the help of a tool which supports her upper part of the body. And
more: she remembers a lot , past and present!!! It seems a miracle ! You will
see when you come !....
:clapping: :yeah: :clapping:

[BennyBob]

Love is a wonderful, magical thing! Our prayers will continue. :clapping: :dance: