Blood Drive Set for Saturday, Dec. 6

By Gary Meyer and Patric Hedlund

“I cried a gallon of tears for every ten gallons of gas,” Bill Day said Saturday about his journey from Arkansas to Bakersfield to be with his wife, Gloria “Gigi” Day. He couldn’t find a flight the night before Thanksgiving after learning that a massive crash on Frazier Mountain Park Road had left his wife in critical condition in the Intensive Care Unit of Kern Medical Center. Day received a reported eight to nine hours of surgery for major injuries that first night while family friends and her sons held a vigil at the hospital.

Gigi Day’s car was heading east at 12:40 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26 when an armored vehicle travelling westbound lost control and swerved into her lane, striking Day’s Subaru headon, according to official reports from California Highway Patrol investigators.

CHP officers said the force of the collision sent the armored vehicle and Day’s car airborne and spinning. They landed on the shoulder of the road with the heavy armored vehicle on top of the back of Day’s car. The passenger vehicle was so crushed that witnesses said they believed it was a Volkswagen.

The Mountain Enterprise, by coincidence, arrived within minutes of the crash, just before CHP and Kern County firefighters.

Firefighters began working immediately to remove the roof of the car to rescue the still-unidentified driver. An ambulance helicopter was unable to land because of rainy weather conditions. Day was taken by ground ambulance to Kern Medical Center where a surgical team worked until 9:30 p.m. to respond to her injuries.

It was about 4:30 before the newspaper received the report from CHP identifying the driver. Efforts were made immediately to notify her family and friends that she had been taken to the hospital.

Gigi Day, who recently had a gala Dream Castle party to celebrate her 80th birthday, has been a widely known and active member of the Mountain Communities. She raised her children here and has written for The Mountain Enterprise and (in the 1970s) for The Bakersfield Californian.

She is the president of AARP, a performer and member of the board of The Mountain Shakespeare Festival; active with Rotary in beautification of Frazier Park; an avid fundraiser for the cause of finding a cure for breast cancer; and a guiding light in the renewed celebration on the mountain of the annual Jewish culture festival cycle. She was making preparations for Hanakkuh just prior to the accident. The Days are also polished dancers, often teaching classes in Bakersfield, Santa Clarita and at jazz festivals around California. The driver of the Garda armored vehicle, Confessor Ramos, 48 and his passenger, Raul Hernandez, 33 received minor injuries in the crash. They were treated and released from Kern Medical Center. Garda is a “cash logistics” company. The truck was on its way to Antelope Valley Bank in Frazier Park with a cash delivery. The smashed truck was kept locked and towed to Lebec where guards arrived to transport the money. Day’s sons battled Thanksgiving traffic from Los Angeles to get to Bakersfield. One flew in from Hawaii via Seattle. On Wednesday night, although doctors said the surgery had gone well and she was temporarily downgraded from “critical” to “serious,” Day was put back on the “critical” list when she suddenly started to bleed internally for an unknown reason. She was reportedly losing 170ml of blood per hour, requiring continuous transfusions. That resulted in hypothermia and other complications. Family was later told that Day had “less than a 50-50 chance for survival.” The list of her injuries included a damaged pancreas, kidney and liver, with a crushed ankle and smashed hip and pelvis. She had deep facial and scalp cuts with broken bones in her face. In the interest of full disclosure, we will mention that we were at the hospital until 1:30 a.m. Thanksgiving day and that Gigi Day is a personal friend to these reporters and The Mountain Enterprise staff. For that reason, we encouraged the family to emphasize to the medical staff that in her case, “80 years is just a number; she has more fight than you are expecting.” It appears Day proved that to be correct. Though her heart was reported to have stopped twice between Wednesday night and Thanksgiving morning, by Thursday night doctors reported the hemorrhaging had dwindled to less than 10ml per five hours.

She was kept sedated through Friday, when she was gradually allowed to regain consciousness. By Saturday, when her husband arrived, she was still on a respirator but able to recognize voices. Over the following four days, Day continued to improve until she could be taken off the respirator and maintained on oxygen alone.

She continues to have surgeries, and is expected to be in the intensive care unit through the end of the week, but, as Bill Day puts it, “Tell people that Gigi’s smile has healed.”

She is indeed awake and able to smile through the stitches.

The community has launched a blood drive in Gigi Day’s name in partnership with Houchin Blood Bank. Those who would like to donate blood are asked to call 245-3794 to make an appointment. Houchin will be in Frazier Park Saturday, Dec. 6 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Day is still not able to have visitors at the hospital, but cards and notes can be sent care of The Mountain Enterprise P.O. Box 610, Frazier Park 93225 and will be taken to the ICU at Kern Medical Center.

Running updates from Bill Day on Gigi’s condition are being maintained at the www.MountainEnterprise.com website. He asks that friends check there for the latest news regarding her progress.

This is part of the December 05, 2008 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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