March 19, 2024

Newton man who fell from ladder in ICU

Fundraising account begun for medical expenses

Brad Jolliffe was hoping to wrap up his of work painting a new building in Newton on Thursday.

Jolliffe and his girlfriend of about four years, Terra Scott, have worked together painting and creating designs as Color Creations on all sorts of Newton-area businesses and homes. However, things came to a sudden halt at about 9:15 a.m. Thursday.

Jolliffe and Scott were helping paint the nearly completed Lauterbach Buick GMC facility at 2900 First Avenue East in Newton on Thursday morning when Jolliffe fell from a ladder, 25 feet onto concrete. Scott found Jolliffe on the ground, making unrecognizable noises and trying to get up, but it turned out he had some serious injuries.

After being airlifted to Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, Jolliffe, 46, has been in the intensive care unit there since Thursday, Scott said. A GoFundMe account has been started to help with his medical expenses.

“He’s got a massive contusion on the right side of his brain,” Scott said. “He also has a partially collapsed right lung, four broken ribs on his right side and one on the left side. Part of his skull was removed. But he’s gotten better each day. He didn’t seem to injure his back or vertebrae, so doctors say he will have some kind of issues long-term, but he will recover slowly.”

Scott said one major milestone was that a drainage tube, used to drain brain fluid, has been removed, so Jolliffe is not losing any more fluid. The brain swelling has gone down. He is technically in a medically induced coma, Scott said, but the amount of sedation given to him has been reduced, and he responds in subtle ways to pain.

“His right eye is swollen shut,” Scott said. “He can start to open his left one. So he’s going to be in the hospital for a while.”

Neither Jolliffe nor Scott have extensive family ties in Jasper County, having moved to Newton about four years ago. Jolliffe’s sister lives in Aiken, but some of his other family are in Arizona. Scott is from the Des Moines area.

Doyle and Devoe Realty, for whom Color Creations has done a considerable amount of work over the past few years, is also setting up a donation account through a local bank. More information about that account will be released when available.

Scott said she had been planning an out-of-state trip, so there wasn’t a lot of work lined up for Color Creations, but she isn’t sure what will happen with the business now. Much will depend on what happens with Jolliffe medically.

“Hopefully, all his speech and memory and imagination and those things come back,” Scott said.

Scott said she’ll continue to be as supportive as possible while Jolliffe recovers.

“I”m told he responds more to my voice than from anyone else who’s visited him in the hospital,” Scott said. “And his heart rate goes up a little when I’m talking to him.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com