This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

UPDATE: Roman Kotas Talks With Assistance

Three weeks after being hit by a car while riding his bike, 13-year-old Roman Kotas talks through insert in tracheotomy and has surgery to replace parts of his removed skull.

Today marks three weeks at Hennepin County Medical Center for the
13-year-old Fridley boy who suffered severe head trauma in a on Mississippi Street and he’s able to talk with an adapted tracheotomy insert.

That's the report from Roman Kotas' parents in journal entries at a new Caring Bridge website. From Tuesday’s entry:

And he's been starting to experiment with an insert in his trach tube that will allow him to talk. For those of us who know Roman well, we know that he LOVES to talk. The insert, however, is taking a little getting used to.

Find out what's happening in Fridleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

While the hospital officially lists his condition as “Serious,” the tone in the teenager’s hospital room isn’t always serious.

When he uses the voice insert he sounds a little like Darth Vader from the "Star Wars" movies -- I'm hoping it won't be long before he really starts enjoying that. If I'm lucky, I'll get him to try to say "Luke, I am your Father" by the end of the week.

Find out what's happening in Fridleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Surgery was done to replace the parts of his skull that were removed shortly after the accident when brain swelling was a concern. With that fear lifted doctors performed the surgery.

The surgery was very successful and this is a big step for him because it's the beginning of wrapping up the medical things that he needs to do in the ICU so that he can move on to the next phase of his recovery.

According to the website, the plan is to transfer Roman from HCMC to Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare as early as next week.

Roman’s condition is an improvement from earlier when he was

9:20 a.m., Friday, Aug. 5 UPDATE: Patch just got this update from Roman's father, Wojeciech, about how the family is handling the recovery.

"The initial phase of recovery in traumatic brain injury has a really wave-like pattern; that is, there are days when sudden improvements happen very rapidly and days when Roman seems to be treading water or just being too tired/sedated to do what is expected. As his parents, we also become subjects to this pattern, and our feelings tend to reflect what each day brings. Fortunately, all the encouraging developments we've seen in last several days keep us buoyed up and determined to succeed."

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Fridley