Washington, DC
April 18, 2008

Ed Somers

Ed Somers is recovering in the hospital after three major surgeries to repair and rebuild his cracked, fractured and smashed vertebrae incurred from a fall at his home Saturday, April 5. It is a miracle and a blessing from God that he is not paralyzed. He was attending to the vent on his clothes dryer when he fell though a dry wall ceiling and went ten feet down, smashing his back on hard concrete.

Ed’s wife, Anna, immediately dialed 911 and the paramedics were there to get him to the trauma center at Fairfax Virginia INOVA Hospital. He had his first surgery to repair and rebuild two upper vertebrae within hours of his arrival on Saturday, April 5.

His second surgery for the purpose of repairing and rebuilding his lower vertebrae on Wednesday, April 9 was much more extensive than the first, having lasted over seven hours and requiring two incisions.

His third surgery to insert rods in his lower back was Monday, April 14 and it lasted over three hours.

Three surgeries in nine days and to be very much aware before and after each surgery as he was going through it is quite remarkable. He is one brave and strong person.

He has been through such an ordeal of pain and suffering. The silver lining in the pain, anguish and frustration is that there is no severe damage or severance of the spinal cord.

While he has had minor setbacks through three individual surgeries, I am pleased to let you know that the surgeries are over and he is now prepared to initiate rehab procedures toward his recovery. Soon he will be transferred from the hospital to a rehab clinic for treatment to begin the recovery process.

I have been visiting him almost daily since the accident. I want so much for the rest of our headquarters’ staff and his Washington friends to be able to visit him. Let’s hope soon. Our staff is so special and he helps make them special. I have done my best to provide them emails and updates over the past few days since the tragic accident.

Well wishes and words of encouragement can be mailed to Ed at his office address: 1620 Eye Street, NW, 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20006 and he can receive e-mail at esomers@usmayors.org

To those of us who know him, he needs to hear from you. I encourage all to contact him.

Over the past two weeks since the last edition of U.S.Mayor, we have had successful participation in the New Jersey Conference of Mayors in Atlantic City and the Bloomberg Mayors Against Guns group here in Washington. Plus, we are moving forward in Congress on a number of fronts, a new stimulus package, legislation to provide relief to those affected by the home mortgage crisis, and plans for a supplemental appropriation. All of these events and happenings were good. I went to the events and am making decisions on the others.

But to be quite honest, my mind has been elsewhere, focused on the future health of my dear friend and Chief of Staff, Ed Somers. So read about the good stuff we are doing in this edition.

The mind works in mysterious ways. The mind can be commanding a thousand thoughts and decisions every day. But the heart and soul, working together ­– it’s a different kind of thing. The heart and soul don’t jump around like the mind. The heart and soul stay focused on what is real to another, what is love to another. And so my heart and soul has been with Ed over the past few days, which seems like a really long time.

We are blessed that he is not paralyzed and we will be there in the morning, the daytime and through the evening until he is back. A great and courageous team member is down but I can assure you, he will be back soon with his continued public service to all of you and to our organization. That’s the way we are at The United States Conference of Mayors. We are so proud to call him our own, now, today, tomorrow and forever. God Bless Ed, Anna and Alex.