Now that it’s a bit past two months since Jimmy Bruno had his traumatic brain injury and spent better than a month on a ventilator, he is doing much better. He’s been off the ventilator for awhile, his tracheostomy has finally healed closed, and he is able to eat without requiring the feeding tube that was placed during his hospital stay. He’s finishing several weeks at a lousy little rehab center whose only positive feature is that it is only five minutes from his home. He’s very deconditioned and will need a great deal of physical therapy, but he is able to walk short distances. When he first came off the ventilator and could speak again, he was very agitated and kind of paranoid, but fortunately that has passed. He has softened his stance that he never wants to play the guitar again, but he doubts that he will do another gig. He’s worried about his memory (though he can hum solos that he played on his recordings and remembers his music theory), his hearing and his vision. What a neurosurgeon friend told me is that it can take up to 18 months to re-establish a new baseline in terms of personality and special senses, so he’s probably ahead of the curve. He unfortunately can’t remember his Website’s password so he can’t yet communicate with students or others who might look at the site, but he asked me to extend his thanks to the many who wished him well. He will hopefully be able to go home in a week or so.
Chris Smart asked for the link to the Go Fund Me site for Jimmy. It’s
or go to www.gofundme.com and search for “Support for Jimmy’s family”. There are two links with that title. Jimmy’s is the one with the picture of him with his wife, son, daughter and grandson.
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What Jimmy told me was that Frank Vignola had multiple injuries after an accident in an all-terrain vehicle this past spring and he may not be able to play the guitar before the end of the year. I found an article that isn’t detailed, but talks about his accident. It’s here:
It only says that he had a number of fractured bones in his right arm, shoulder and clavicle.
