His litany of physical setbacks include several collarbone breaks, cracked ribs, hernias and repair surgeries, a broken foot, broken wrists, two knee surgeries, and a broken lower back and subsequent surgery only two years earlier. Many of the injuries were serious, but none had ever come so close to fatal. For days, Arlie's status went back and forth between critical and stable. I didn't want to fail anyone. The contraption has a chest harness with a bulky metal geometric framework that screws into the skull through the skin, every bit as uncomfortable and awkward as it sounds.
Rest is possible in the halo, but sleep is pretty much impossible.
Of course, Arlie's head had to be shaved. The end result aesthetically was of a pretty handsome guy transformed into a caged oddity. When Arlie finally felt well enough to leave the house, strangers laughed at him uncomfortably or treated him as if he were invisible. But, from seeing others in the trauma center who would have to sponge bathed the rest of their lives, to meeting others who wouldn't walk again, Arlie had plenty of reminders to be grateful for his luck rather than curse his misfortune. When I said four, he almost started crying.