Man who suffered severe thermal and chemical burns wakes up from coma
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IDAHO FALLS — A man has woken up from a coma after nearly a month following a life-threatening incident while at work. His wife is happy that she can tell him, “I love you.”
Tracy Fox, 45, had been in a coma since Dec. 6 at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center but woke up in the hospital last week.
Click here to read a previous story EastIdahoNews.com reported on.
“When I walked into his room, he looked at me and smiled, which is probably the pain meds,” Tracy’s wife Carolyn Fox said, laughing. “Because he doesn’t really overtly smile in just everyday life! He was happy to see me, and I was able to tell him, ‘I love you,’ and he acknowledged that he heard me say it. I have been waiting for that for a month.”
He was able to say it back to her, too.
On Dec. 6, Tracy was working at a plant in Jerome for his company, Ecolab, when lye in a machine sprayed onto him. It was 200 degrees. His instinct was to get away from it, but as he tried to do so, he fell from a rolling staircase about 10 feet off of the cement floor.
“The fall caused an open fracture (compound fracture) in his lower leg, an open fracture in his elbow, and a fracture of his scapula,” Carolyn said in a previous interview.
Tracy suffered second and third-degree thermal burns and chemical burns over about 50% of his body. He was taken by air ambulance to EIRMC, where he has remained.
“Within the last day or two, he’s actually been able to hold a conversation where I don’t see the confusion. Like, when he first woke up, he couldn’t even remember what kind of car we had or that we had dogs,” Carolyn explained. “I saw him briefly this (Monday) morning because they (medical staff) have a busy day for him.”
She said he was able to understand when she would be coming back to the hospital to see him and what procedures were going to take place. On Monday, Carolyn said Tracy is scheduled to have his bandages taken off. The burn surgeon will come to evaluate how his burns are doing and decide what the next steps are going to be.
“The best thing is he is participating in his care now. So he’s working with the physical therapists. He’s able to tell them how he’s feeling, what hurts and just kind of be more present for the decisions,” she said. “He has very calmly expressed how much pain he is in. But the nurses are fantastic at EIRMC and are really on top of it to try and make him as comfortable as possible.”
Carolyn has created a GoFundMe to help with expenses. Her husband is the leading provider for them, and he takes care of her, as she has been on social security disability due to health reasons since 2017. It originally had a $23,000 goal but has since been bumped to $40,000. As of Monday afternoon, $36,995 has been raised. She is grateful.
“We were blown away. I had no idea that was going to happen,” she said. “The support that we have had from people, not just from the GoFundMe but people in town who have offered to help.”
Though it will be a long road to recovery, she’s thankful he’s alive and awake.
EIRMC spokeswoman Coleen Niemann said Tracy remains in serious condition.