Carter Camp’s Update On His Son :: UPDATED 2x

Carter Camp

( – promoted by navajo)

For those of you who are interested our friend Carter Camp’s son has been seriously injured in a car accident.  Carter and his wife Linda traveled from Rose Bud Reservation to the Kansas Hospital to be with Ahmbaska.

Carter’s update:

:: Published with permission ::

—– Original Message —–

From: Carter Camp

To:  

Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 6:43 PM

Subject: Fw: update on Ahmbaska

Neeta, my son was in a car wreck so I’m down in Kansas for awhile. Here’s an update I sent out to some people. Carter

— On Fri, 10/3/08, Carter Camp wrote:

Ah-ho my Friends and Relations,

This is to update you all on my son Ahmbaska’s condition etc. There has been an out pouring of love and concern since his accident, so many that I haven’t had time to answer folks. First for those who haven’t heard; my son Ahmbaska was involved in a very bad auto accident down in Oklahoma.

He was thrown from the car and suffered severe injuries the worst of which is a head injury which required an operation to relieve pressure from his brain, he also suffered broken ribs, ankle, and a cracked shoulder blade. The head injury is the worst of course. He was life-flighted from Ponca to Wichita, Kansas to the Wesley Medical Center where the brain surgery was done.

Since the accident last weekend he has been kept in a drug induced coma while his swelling goes down. The good news is that the operation went well and Ahmbaska is doing better. He is now able to recognize us and move his arms and legs on command. The surgeon tells us he is a remarkably strong young man and is doing better than expected.

I attribute that to so many prayers and good wishes that have been sent to us from around the country and world. His Mom and I have been pleasantly surprised at how fast word of his injury spread throughout Indian Country and by how many people have taken it upon themselves to pray for us and help us out in our time of dire need.

Kind people also from Canada, Mexico and even France have joined us in praying for our boy and I truly believe it has made all the difference. As some of you know, old activists don’t have any retirement plan so coming when it did this accident put quite a strain on my wife and I but good people like my brother Gene McCowan help provide us enough gas money to get from Rosebud to Wichita and my nephews kindly drove from Oklahoma to pick me up and take us down to the hospital. Others have had ceremonies for us on their own and did things for his healing that I’ll probably never be able to thank them for, but I want to tell you all that every prayer and good thought has been received by Ahmbaska, I know they have because he has defied the odds and come out of that critical time with hope for recovery.

He’s still in the Surgical ICU but each day brings some improvement and he’s battling for his life like a Sundancer should. I thank each and every one of you from the very bottom of my heart. The next few weeks Linda and I will have to remain in Kansas and take care of him during a long convalescence before he’ll be released to go home.

So far we haven’t left the hospital but many family and friends have made their way here to help out and we’re glad Chief Crowdog is on his way to help too. As I said there has been so many messages I can’t answer them all right now(I’m using a hospital computer when I step away from his bed) so I hope this update can take the place of my personal thank you (Weebla-ha) and that of my wife Linda.

Again Ahmbaska is getting better every day and we hope that Wakonda will see fit to return him to us whole and strong once more… and that it will be soon. I love you my people, my friends, my loved ones. One day maybe I can return some of the kindness you have shown me during this hard time in my life.

ight now I humbly ask that you continue your prayers on his behalf. They are working.

I say this,

For All My Relations,

Carter Camp

cartercamp@yahoo.com  

If you feel like helping there’s more below:

Many of you know Carter Camp’s history but for those of you who don’t here is a very short bit of his history:

Carter Camp was one of the original AIM organizers. In 1973 he was directly in charge of the military action group that went in advance of the main group to take over Wounded Knee.  He and his group took 11 hostages, safely, I believe most were released. They held Wounded Knee for 71 days and brought much needed attention to the horrible police state that the reservation was trying to survive under. Not only that but attention was brought to other Indian issues that were consistently being ignored by government.   AIM helped bring more Indian issues into the National and International news coverage.

Since then Carter has continued his Indian activism by organizing various groups like the one that is currently trying to protect the sacred Bear Butte from development.

As some of you know, old activists don’t have any retirement plan so coming when it did this accident put quite a strain on my wife and I but good people like my brother Gene McCowan help provide us enough gas money to get from Rosebud to Wichita and my nephews kindly drove from Oklahoma to pick me up and take us down to the hospital.

This excert above from Carter’s update spoke to me and I would like to give something back to a true warrior who has helped all of us with his activism.

I asked to mail a little financial help to Carter and his family.  He responded with an address.

If you would like to help also you can mail a money order or check to:

Ahmbaska Camp,

c/o Carter Camp, Room 1018,

Wesley Medical Center,

550 N. Hillside,

Wichita, Kansas 67214-4976.

Please make the check out to Linda Camp (since she is the brains of the family…I’m told)

Also if you are tapped out like many are during this donation season I am sure get well cards would be welcomed also.

And if you encounter anyone in the threads at DailyKos that might want to help please link to this diary.  

Thanks everyone!

Carter,  Our positive energy and blessings are being directed to you and your family, particularly Ahmbaska.  We look forward to your next update.

Update 11/6/2008:

Ah-ho My Relations,

 I wanted to write this update about Ahmbaska just before what we hope is his final operation. Since the last update I wrote Linda and I have stayed here in the hospital with Ahmby. It has been a long five weeks but the reward has been watching my son overcome in his fight for life and grow stronger every day. For the first couple of weeks it was touch and go, he could have died from his injuries then and I didn’t want to leave his side for a moment. His head and brain were swollen and he was kept under sedation in a drug induced coma until the swelling could go down and he could heal somewhat. It worked and after two weeks they began to bring him up to consciousness every day to test his reactions and progress. Slowly but surly he improved until one by one they could take him off the various machines they were using to keep him alive. Tubes were removed and the biggie, his “ventilator” was finally taken off and he began to breath on his own. After that he was moved from the surgical ICU up to the intermediate care unit.

That was a big step for him (and us) and then we finally knew he was going to recover from his wounds. Then we had a setback, the surgery to replace his skull-piece failed because his brain re swelled when he was under sedation and it couldn’t be done. Now it was back to the S-ICU and we began our journey all over again. This time wasn’t as life threatening and after a few days he was moved up to the IMU again and began his recovery and healing. His head healed just fine again and he began therapy once again.

Here’s the good news… Ahmbaska has regained all his mental faculties and has regained the full use of his arms and legs even though they are weak from being in bed for so long! I’m very happy to report that to all of you because I know everyone has been worried about how he would be post-surgery. Except for the accident itself, which remains fuzzy to him, his memory seems fine and he talks and thinks just fine also.

You guys know me and that I’m a believer in prayer so I truly believe that all of you, your prayers, thoughts and best wishes had a big effect on Ahmby’s recovery. So many of you called and wrote about the ceremonies and prayers you were having on our behalf, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for each and every one. Some of the local skins here in Wichita fixed up a sweat lodge for me and allowed me to have some Inipi for him. This was a big thing to Linda and I as it gave us a place to pray too. I’m eternally grateful to everyone for all these efforts on our behalf, I hope one day I’ll be able to shake each and every one of your hands and tell you personally how much you helped us get through this hard time.

On the more mundane side some of you have seen fit to help us out with money so we could stay here in a town where we have no support system or place to stay. You know, even though we had a cot in Ahmby’s room we still had to eat a big mac every once in  awhile:) and we had to buy the necessities of living for this past five or six weeks. Like everyone I hate to ask anyone for money or make a big deal of my needs, with good friends and family like you all I didn’t have to, you took it upon yourselves to help and I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness. Without that and the support from our families Linda and I would have had a very hard time of it. We still have those needs and I’ll put our address at the bottom of this update in case you care to help once more.

Today, this evening, Ahmbaska is going into surgery for another try at replacing his skull part which should finish his surgery and clear the way for him to be released from the hospital soon. He may have to go to a rehab place for awhile but we look forward to that part of the recovery. So I’m asking you all once more for your prayers and kind thoughts for my son. Shortly after sundown we’ll be praying together as he is taken in for the operation and I know if you’ll join me it will all come out ok and he’ll begin his final road to good health.

Weebla-ha means thank you in my Ponca language, Wopila in Lakota. So I say WEEBLA-HA to all of you who have helped us through our trying time. Wopila for your powerful prayers and kind feelings for my son. On behalf of Linda and our whole family…

I remain your friend and relative, Carter Camp.

The address here is…  Ahmbaska Camp, c/o Carter Camp, Room 1018, Wesley Medical Center, 550 N. Hillside, Wichita, Kansas 67214-4976.

Update: 11/18/2008

Ahmbaska is being released from the hospital today.

Ah-ho navajo, we’re now at a friends apartment in Wichita, it sure feels good to be out of there even though Ahmby has slept most of the time he’s been here. He still needs some rehab and another operation in three months to replace the piece of skull they took out. He’s shocked at how he looks with that portion of his head sunk in but he looks damn good to me compared to what he looked like that first night….(snip)…mention that Ahmbaska is better and being released… after 54 days here, damn, it seems like a dream, from the fear of those first days until the relief of these final days in the hospital and watching them wheel him out today. It’ll be nice to resume my life soon. We’ll drive up to Rosebud tomorrow.  

If you’d like to help Carter with these unplanned for expenses his addy is:

Carter Camp

P.O. Box 1012

Rosebud S.D.   57570

2 Comments

  1. I’m praying for all of you.  A small check is on its way as well.

    Thanks Najavo, for bringing this to our attention.

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