A Durango man remained in critical condition Saturday evening in a Denver hospital after rolling his truck northeast of Durango on Thursday afternoon.
Michael O’Neill, 18, was taken to Mercy Regional Medical Center with serious injuries before being taken to St. Anthony’s Hospital in Denver.
A GoFundMe site said Friday that O’Neill was in an induced coma, and the extent of his injuries won’t be known until he wakes.
“He has two broken femurs and his left leg is broken in multiple places,” the site says. “He has internal bruising pretty much everywhere but no bleeding, he has a fractured vertebrae but spinal cord is okay, punctured lungs, and brain bruising and bleeding.”
Late Friday night, his sister, Jen O’Neill, posted on his GoFundMe page that doctors had performed brain surgery, removing a piece of Michael O’Neill’s skull to allow his brain to swell. Controlling the pressure on his brain will allow doctors to treat his other injuries, she said.
At about noon Saturday, a post said he was doing “a little better,” with brain pressure way down and other indicators improving. At that time, Michael O’Neill was headed in to get an inferior vena cava filter to stop blood clots that may form in his legs from traveling to his lungs.
The crash occurred about 4 p.m. Thursday in the 4000 block of Florida Road (County Road 240), said Capt. Adrian Driscoll with the Colorado State Patrol.
O’Neill, a 2016 graduate of Durango High School, was the only occupant in the 2001 Dodge pickup. No other vehicles were involved.
A crash report had not been filed as of Friday, so no further information was immediately available, Driscoll said.
Sierra Ellis, a family friend, said O’Neill was planning to move to the Front Range next week to attend a community college. His Facebook page has numerous pictures and videos of his truck.
“His car was his baby; he spent more time and money on that thing,” Ellis wrote in an email to the Herald. “He is a great friend to so many and loved by all of his family and friends.”
shane@durangoherald.com
On the Net
To view the GoFundMe site for Michael O’Neill, visit www.gofundme.com/michaeloneill.
