Progress

Julia opened her eyes and began responding yesterday. This morning she is having short conversations and continues to improve every hour. It appears Julia is beginning the long road to a full recovery.

All of your support and prayers have been so helpful to the family.

Progress

We have received some positive news this morning about Julia Baird's progress. Julia is becoming more aware of her surroundings and can now respond to simple commands by opening her eyes and pointing. She can say Hi and Bye and recognize people she knows. All this is such excellent news and bodes well for further improvement, but she still has a long way to go. She is not able to speak yet and so phone calls are not appropriate. While we can all continue to hope for a rapid recovery, it is expected that Julia will require extensive therapy and treatment in the coming weeks.

Your many offers of help and food and flowers are most appreciated. However, for the time being the family requests that you hold off on sending flowers and other gifts until further notice. Friends who have offered to send food or meals to the Bairds are being asked to please save those efforts for now. The family anticipates that Julia will benefit most from having people familiar to her nearby and in that regard you can anticipate that the Bairds will call on you to come visit and stay for blocks of time with Julia after she is transferred to Chicago. A schedule for coordinating those visits will be posted on the blog calendar. For now the best thing is to send notes of encouragement that will surely be read by Julia and the family in the coming weeks.

Why We Created This Blog

The Baird/Stock family deeply appreciates the many calls they have received and huge outpouring of support following Julia's tragic biking accident. It is so gratifying (and also a little overwhelming) to have so many friends and colleagues to call upon for help in these trying circumstances. All of you are concerned about Julia's condition and the family wanted to send this update to answer some of the many questions being asked.

As reported in the press, Julia sustained multiple fractures of ribs, clavicle and scapula and had surgery immediately following the accident to repair the broken bones. In addition, she sustained a serious concussion. The trauma resulted in Julia losing consciousness and she has yet to completely wake up. All appropriate treatment and scans have been undertaken to diagnose and treat such an injury and the tests show Julia should make a full recovery. However, the healing process is unpredictable in such instances and can be long and slow. Julia is expected to remain in the trauma ICU at St. Mary's Hospital in Evansville, IN until her recovery progresses.

Your many offers of help are welcome and may be called upon in the coming weeks and months as Julia recovers. At this time, family and close friends are with Wendy, James and Andrew and will be rotating through Evansville as necessary. Situations like these call for sustained patience, optimism and support for the whole family. Your positive thoughts and prayers will remain ever necessary in the days to come.

You all know Julia Baird has an inimitable spirit like no other. With all of us pulling together and cheering her on she can and will GET STRONG soon!