The Michael Figiel

On a very cold, WAY below 0 degrees, Thursday January morning I was driving to work with my wife when my cell phone rang. It was a co-worker who asked if I had talked to Figs (Feegs) yet this morning. I told her I hadn’t, but it was 7:25a and that wasn’t a rarity. Through tears she said she had driven by and accident on the way to the office and thought she saw Mike’s car. I called Mike’s phone, no answer - sent text messages, emails, called, called and called again - no answers. I arrived at the office at 7:45a and figured we’d wait until after 8:00a before we started to worry. At 8:30a Allyson called the hospital closest to the Accident and found Mike. I informed our Boss who was at an off site meeting and we left for the hospital. Once we arrived the nurse said we could go back and see him in a minute, then she walked back to his room. She returned and said he had gone for a CT scan, typical procedure after an accident, and when he returned we could see him. She asked about insurance and I provided my card figuring he was on the same the plan. I asked if anyone had been contacted and she informed me that they did not have any emergency contact information. The owner of our company forwarded Mike’s Father’s Home and Cell phone numbers to me and I provided them to the nurse. After the owner of the company called Mike’s Dad directly and let him know I was on-site at the hospital he immediately called my cell phone. I didn’t have any information, but told him the name of the hospital and handed the phone to the nurse. When she returned she told me that the nurse had time to talk with his Father. I called him back and he told me Mike had broken ribs, a broken hip, and an issue with his spleen - my heart dropped, throat closed up. I was in complete shock - neither myself or my co-worker who was with me believed the situation was this dire. The nurse told me they were moving him to the ICU at a different hospital where they more capable of performing the surgeries he was going to need. My co-worker and I loitered not know what to do and proceeded back to my car in the parking lot. We waited and waited and finally watched them put him in the Ambulance marked with ICU and a police escort.

The following Email was sent out:
All,
I like to think of the team as a family….families pull together and we all need to be thinking about one of our family members who was in a very serious automobile accident this morning.
Michael Figiel, a very special young man on our BPG team in the North Central region needs to be in your thoughts and prayers. He has just recently come out of surgery where among other things his spleen and a kidney were removed. Also his hip and pelvis has been shattered. The next 24-48 hours will be critical .

Michael’s family is in Chicago with him at the hospital….let’s make sure we are with him in spirit.

We will keep you posted on Michael’s progress, although it may be a while before we have something new to report.

Thank you for your support of Michael.

Surgery #1
Mike immediately went into Surgery at the next hospital where they removed his spleen and kidney and examined the remainder of his internal organs.  After the first surgery they left him open so the doctors could continually monitor for signs of internal bleeding.

Here the email I launched after I spoke with Meg Friday Morning:

Quick update for you guys,

Spoke with Meg this morning and she sounds 1000% better than yesterday. At this point he made it through the night with no major issues and the family is very optimistic based on what the doctors have shared with them.  All the fluids going in are coming out clean which is a VERY good sign that the rest of his organs that are intact are all doing their job.  He’ll have one more surgery to examine some possible bruising on his liver and close him back up - he’s still open from yesterday for observation. Last night he was moving his arms and legs and tried to pull the ventilator tube from his mouth, so he’s moving around and doesn’t appear to have any major spine injuries.  He’s getting his neck scanned today to make sure nothing is fractured so that they can remove the neck collar.  I’m going to swing by today and drop off flowers or gift basket with the RJM Worldwide sign he made back in the day after we found out MRM was outsourcing everything so he’ll know we’re all thinking about him.  24 more hours and he should be out of the most critical stage so keep him in your thoughts.  He’s already in traction for the hip and pelvis and they’re meeting with orthopedic surgeon next week to determine the next steps.

I’ll keep everyone posted to what I find out.

JLee

My Boss and I went to the hospital for the first time Friday evening after picking up a foam core boar with the “Top Ten things waiting for You when you Return” card and a gift basket for the family. You all would not believe the amount of family and friends that had made the trip to the hospital.  We all know about Mike’s pasta Sunday’s and multiple stops to family members homes on Christmas, but I can official verify he wasn’t BS-ing.  There were 20+ people in the waiting room; 19 were there for Mike.

My first Visit

Completely unexpectedly Meg invited Scott, Andrea, and Me up to Mike’s room that evening. *Heart Stops, throat swells*

We entered Mike’s Room and visited - Here’s the email I sent immediately following:

All of us have heard Figs talk about the Pasta Sunday’s, massive family gatherings, and multiple Christmas locations he and Meg had to travel to, and now I can officially confirm that he wasn’t bullshitting.  The family waiting room was dominated by his relatives, there had to be between 15 and 20 family, friends, and cousins.  He has a great support network saying their prayers and constantly visiting him in his room in the ICU.

Meg and Mike’s Mom invited us up to the room where Mike is currently healing.  Since they limit the number of people at one time Mike’s Mom stayed downstairs and Snyder, Andrea, and I went upstairs into his room.

This is hard, hard for all of us – but please believe me when I tell you, and Snyder will back me 100% - ONCE you got past the fact that he had the ventilator tube in and there were countless machines, tubes, IV Bags, and traction cords hooked up to him – he looked unbelievably GREAT.  His face, arms, and legs have no visible damage beyond some bruising on his arms.  He’s “poofy” from all of the fluids but his color is good, temperature to the touch was normal, and beard was growing at his typical grizzly pace.   We were in his room for quite awhile and we let him know that we were ALL saying our prayers and he needed to hang on.

He is scheduled for his second surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30A to remove the internal packing and check for bleeding and bruising on his liver.  If all is well they’ll finally close him up tomorrow morning.  If he’s stable Meg said they would try to take him off the ventilator tomorrow because his lungs are in great shape and slowly reduce the amount of sedation.

Meg is going to call me tomorrow morning after the surgery and give me an update.

We  have purchased FigsCube.com.  I have a buddy in Boston who is going to host it for us on his servers for free.  I’ll begin to design and update posts on the site tomorrow if all goes well getting the servers set-up.

I need your help.  Let me know any ideas for the site that you have.  I’m planning an area for “Meet Mike” that will include the dance video from the Leo party last year, but I need some quotes and pictures. We’ll have an area for medical updates, cube updates (figure we can foil it, bubble wrap it, Styrofoam peanuts, etc) – Whatever we can come up with.  Andrea threw out the idea of setting up a webcam at his house when he gets home so everyone can see him real-time – he’d F-ing KILL ME, but man would it be awesome to see him real-time (could be a huge following)!!!!  So I need ideas, pictures, quotes, etc. and I’ll set it up so that you all can add blog posts etc., and I think his fam will probably get involved.  Welcome to healing 2.0 – any support will be appreciated.

He’s got another 24 we need to help him get through, say the prayers or whatever you all do – keep him in your thoughts and don’t forget Meg needs our support too.

Hit the Cell anytime,

JLee

Saturday 1/17

Meg texted me early and I sent out:

GREAT NEWS This morning everyone!

Figs surgery this morning went great!!!

I don’t have any additional details past the fact that they were able to finally close him up and remove all of the internal packing this morning. They will begin to wean him off the ventilator tomorrow.

Next couple of hours are still very critical – say an extra prayer this morning.

Thanks all.

JLee

In the evening:

I headed up to the hospital and spent some time with the family re-hashing old stories and hilarious memories.  Just a couple of lesser know facts:

Meg met Mike at a Halloween Party where Figs was dressed as Michale BOLTON with the full blonde wig; passing out autographed pictures and cds. Mike was wearing Meg’s costume belt as a bandanna at the bar before the night was over - imagine that.

Meg, Meg’s Mom, Mike’s Dad, Mom, Sister, and I visited the room again on Saturday evening.  They had been with him ALL day rotating family through the room, but it was the first time I had seem in today.

After I left I launched the following email late Saturday:

Just leaving the ICU. Spent another couple hours with Meg and the family and was in the room for about 2 hours. They closed him up, but there’s a bit of a problem with his remaining kidney. It may just be in shock after surgery this morning. He needs to get his heart rate lower before they can take out the tube for the ventilator, but we are hopeful it will come out tomorrow.

Hip and pelvis surgery are scheduled for Thursday if everything stays on track. Need 8 more hours of good progress and the worst could be over.

Very very limited visiting tomorrow and Monday with the ventilator getting turned off. It takes hours and they have advised only one or two people will be allowed all day.

I’ll let you guys know if I hear anything further.

JLee

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