Former Iolan Jesse Cooper, 24, remains in critical condition at the University of Kansas Medical Center today from extensive injuries he suffered in a traffic accident at 6 a.m. Saturday.
Trina DeMeritt, 35, Erie, died when her northbound car collided head-on with Cooper’s southbound car, which had crossed the centerline of U.S. 169 just west of Colony.
“He’s going to stay with us,” said Tasia Choudhry, Cooper’s sister, this morning. “It’s going to be a long journey and the outpouring of prayers and love sent our way since Saturday morning have been amazing.”
Cooper and Choudhry are well-known in the Iola area from their years with South Street Dance Company, including annual two-night recitals at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. For the past year Cooper has danced with the Dayton, Ohio, Ballet Company.
He had plans to reopen the dance company in Iola beginning April 1.
Choudhry said the initial prognosis was bleak, but by Sunday night her brother had shown several signs of improvements, including wiggling his toes and opening his eyes. His brain was swollen when he arrived by helicopter at the medical center, but that has abated, she said. “There have been some wonderful signs.”
Cooper is on a ventilator, mainly to spare his severely bruised lungs from having to labor, Choudhry said. He has broken sinus and cheek bones, his right heel is crushed and his right ankle is broken. Corrective surgery eventually will occur.
Four hours of surgery on Saturday found the source of internal bleeding in his bowel, part of which was removed, Choudhry said.
Cooper was traveling from his home in Overland Park to Iola to visit his parents, Mike and Jeanne Cooper, and planned to go on to Oklahoma City to see his girlfriend when the accident occurred.
Choudhry said she intended to start a blog to update friends on her brother’s condition on CaringBridge.org, a KU Medical Center site.
DeMeritt died at 7:50 Saturday morning at Newman Memorial Regional Medical Center in Emporia, where she had been flown by helicopter.
She was employed at Anderson County Hospital in Garnett as a registered nurse.
Former Iolan critical in crash
