TERRIBLE accident- Brett Hansen Begg

This is just an update from Brett's mom. Brett is a 16 year old disc golfer. He just played in am worlds in the advanced division, and ended up top 75. He was in a bad car wreck Thursday night/Friday morning at 12am. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers as the next few days are critical to keep the swelling on his brain down.

"Brett and Luke Schultz and Amanda (we think, details are sketchy) were in a car accident early Friday AM.


Brett is in the Pediatric ICU at HCMC. He has a serious head injury. The team of doctors are running tests and trying to keep his brain from swelling. The next day or two are going to be scary. Brett is very tough and resiliant. We believe he will pull through and recover.

We just found out that Brett's friend/brother Luke Schultz died. We all loved Luke. He was a great friend to our son and a wonderful person. We loved Luke and will miss him.

Brett needs your love and support now. Pray if you pray. Send him your energy. Help him recover. Thank you.

This is greta. i spent last night disc golfing with luke and brett. then the 3 of us went bowling. we had a really fun night. and then i dropped luke and brett off at luke's house for a sleepover. i'm in shock that luke has died and brett is fighting for his life. luke was an amazing friend to brett and an absolute joy to know. we loved having luke around our family. my favorite part about luke was that he was very witty. very intelligent. very funny. many of our extended family also knew luke and are crushed about his death. i love you luke. i'm so sorry karen and jeff and jeff and zach.

following is what the picu doctor said when we first met with her. "he is not brain dead yet and there's still hope so we should try everything we can to get him better". i just about threw up when she said the phrase brain dead. brett's in an incredibly tenuous medical situation and brett and the nurses and doctors are fighting to reduce the swelling and pressure on his brain. both lungs are badly bruised and damaged. in the last 2 hours brett has had a fresh frozen plasma transfusion of 2 units. he's had an echo of his heart of which we haven't received the results yet. chest xrays. drips of this med, drips of that med into ivs. they had to give him medication to paralyze his body for the helicopter ride. he's unresponsive to most pain stimulus except for 3 responses. he is up to 3 responses!!!!!!! this is good. when we first arrived here he was unresponsive. then he started 'overbreathing' over the ventilator machine which is breathing for him. yeah!! that indicates he has some brain activity. except the bad part of that is that his sick and damaged lungs can't tolerate his own breathing right now, so they have to keep him sedated so he doesn't do the heavy breathing. then later on his pupils dilated with light. wahoo! his latest response is 'corneals' which means when the md put gauze in his eye to iritate the cornea- brett flinched. another good sign of brain function. keep sending slightly. send positive thoughts to brett...be specific...will him to wake up, challenge him to open an eyelid, we need him to flinch against pain when prompted. i love you brett. greta"

This was her latest update.


"this is greta. it's almost midnight. many wonderful people came through the hospital to see brett today. it was a rough rough rough day for brett and for us and for all of you out there who care for brett and luke. i am splitting my positive energy and thoughts between brett's healing and luke's family's sorrow. i try to stay focused on caring for brett and my mind wanders back to luke and karen and jeff and their boys. the void in brett's life will be so big without luke's friendship. the void in watertown and all of our lives so big without luke's humor and happiness.

brett's condition- his blood pressure is stabalized with strong medication- maximum amount of dopamine plus a second med that had to be added when the dopamine cap was hit. he sort of twisted his knee inward and up when nicole and amanda ward started talking to him. a good movement not spurred on by a pain stim but instead by the beautiful voices of beautiful girls. he had to wear a neck and spine stabalizing collar until the neuro took it off after 2 cspans that were negative for spinal injury--- that's good news. after talking to an on-scene deputy tonight i learned the following info from a police report: the accident was at 12:08am Friday. the car was a pontiac sunbird, amanda's i assume. the impact of the car was against a tree and the site of impact on the car was the front seat passenger spot. brett sat in that spot. he was not ejected from the car (he was wearing his seatbelt). the officer said they believe (but it's their best guess based on the evidence and the scene) that brett hit his head on that tree. greta"

If you pray, pray for our fellow discgolfer, Brett Hansen Begg. If you aren't the praying type, keep him in your thoughts. We wanna see our friend have a full recovery and be able to play the sport he loves so much. Thanks all.

[Jayne]

They figured out what Brett has- diffuse axonal injury. Shoulders and down, he is healing great. They took the tube out of his lungs two days back. Just trying to figure out why he isn't waking up is the issue right now... and it has to do with the diffuse axonal injury which, from what I've read, seems like a very very very extremely bad concussion. Keep fighting Brett and family!!!

[Jayne]

BTW... you can check here for updates from his parents...

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/bretthansenbegg

[Jayne]

quick update: I went to the hospital yesterday. Did not see Brett except to see himget wheeled away so they good get his feeding tube in. When I arrived, he was getting x-rays, and when he was done lots of others had showed up. I figured I'd let them go as they seemed anxious. When I realized I had been there for 3 hours and had to go to work, they had just gotten people out of his room so they could wheel him away. His mom said yesterday morning he responded to stimuli on every extremity and on his face on both sides. That was the first time. The doctor tried to wake him, but he musta needed more rest, cuz he didn't wake up yet. They got the tube in right, so he is now getting some nutrition. I think they have been overwhelmed with visitors, as they have made some guidelines to follow that include things like 2-3 minutes maximum, stay positive, don't mention Luke's death... just so he doesn't get worn out and so that he stays positive. His 15 year old bro Will is taking it really hard. I am going down probably next weekend to play some disc golf with him and cheer him up a bit. Working on getting him a custom dyed disc that says "This one's for Brett" or something of the like... I know it will mean the world to Will AND Brett when they see it!

[Jayne]

Thanks all... got another update this morning...
"wahoo update!!!!!!!! *** samantha, amber, and ashley!!! you called! i couldn't come to the phone because at the time brett was moving his right leg and his left arm!!!! the nurse took a message and the piece of paper has only your names on it, no phone number to call you back. i hope you are checking this site so you see that i'm writing you. not sure what you need, but if you want to visit, come on over!!! visiting hours close at 830pm each day i believe. ok i'm getting back to brett now. before i wrote this, i just gave him a kiss on the forehead and he either really liked it or really didn't because he lifted his shoulders up off the bed and lifted his head away from me!!!! so i kissed him 5 more times to get him to move more!! sorry brett the kisses are going to keep on coming!!!!!!!! greta"

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

In my thoughts, all day long, Jayne. He'll pull through.

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

I will definitely keep Brett and Luke's family in my thoughts and prayers. This is a horrible thing that should remind us all just how precious life is.