Hello, my name is Justin Eagon. It's not easy asking for a handout, but my brother Jeremy needs help. He is not only my best friend, but also the sole supporter for his family of 5. He's a hard working individual who started working at the age of 14. Coming from a broken family, I can remember my brother getting a night job at the local grocery store after school to contribute to the household expenses when I was a kid. Rather than him putting the money he made into his own pocket, he helped support his mom and 2 kid brothers by putting food on the table.
As many of you know (just as many of you reading this will NOT know), Jeremy is self-employed. He has been the proprietor of a semi-successful painting company for the past 6 years. Now, by semi-successful, I mean he's been scraping by, not building an empire of wealth.
He and his wife, Maribel, rent a small 2 bedroom home (with 3 children!) in Antioch, IL. When they signed the lease several years ago, it was a 3 person family, so the home was well fit. A little over 2 years ago, he and Maribel were surprised with an unexpected pregnancy. The result was not one child, but two! She was having twins. He's been busting his hump the last several years with the hopes and aspirations of being able to move his family into a more size appropriate home.
On October 24th of 2015, his efforts were sidelined by a terribly unfortunate work related accident. He was working atop some scaffolding when he had a misstep and fell to the ground. Thankfully, he didn't sustain any life-threatening injuries, but he did land on his elbow, which basically disintegrated upon impact.
He was taken by ambulance to the hospital where the orthapedic surgeons performed surgery the following morning. The diagnosis was the most extreme injury one can sustain short of losing a limb. The doctors referred to the injury as the "Terrible Triad". The triad injury, as you can gather, consists of 3 contributing factors: 1.) radial head fracture, 2.) coronoid fracture & 3.) elbow dislocation. So essentially, the elbow pops out of location and is broken in two other places, in one fell swoop. He's now equipped with a myriad of hardware and braces.
As a result of the injury, the prognosis is somewhat grey. There's a good chance that even after the 4 to 6 months it will take to heal, that he'll never have enough use of his arm again to be able to paint. We don't know for sure, it's just too early to tell.
As many Americans are right now, Jeremy is uninsured. His business carries insurance, which is there in the event of property damage or if one of the folks he has subcontracted to work for him has an injury. However, that coverage does not cover the proprietor himself.
Long story short -- Jeremy is struggling and his family is feeling the effects. My mom and I have taken it upon ourselves to start this fund for him. Jeremy has far too much pride to ask anyone for a handout and if he knew we were doing this, there's a good chance he'd beat my ass (with his good arm, that is). Obviously, he'll figure it out soon enough and I'll deal with the consequences then.
The most immediate need is physical therapy. Without therapy, the fracture will not heal properly and there's a good chance the hardware will lock up all together and he could have a permanent loss of range-of-motion. A single session of P.T. costs $150. His doctor's orders call for 3 sessions per week for an undetermined amount of time, but it could take anywhere from 4 to 6 months. I can't stress enough how catastrophic of a limb injury this is.
Our goal amount doesn't even scratch the surface of the surgeon's bills, the hospital stay, the rent, groceries & utilities or anything else, but we've got to start somewhere. All that aside, Christmas will be upon us in just a few short weeks and he has a 13 year old daughter and 2 year old twins who are likely to endure a Christmas that won't consist of much under the tree.
Anything will help, even if it's only a buck or two. If you can't contribute, please share the link.
My family is my world and my brothers mean more to me than I can put in words. Knowing that he's in pain is bad enough. Knowing that he's dealing with the emotional stress of not being able to provide for his familiy on top of it is that much worse.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this story.
Happy Holidays,
Justin Eagon
As many of you know (just as many of you reading this will NOT know), Jeremy is self-employed. He has been the proprietor of a semi-successful painting company for the past 6 years. Now, by semi-successful, I mean he's been scraping by, not building an empire of wealth.
He and his wife, Maribel, rent a small 2 bedroom home (with 3 children!) in Antioch, IL. When they signed the lease several years ago, it was a 3 person family, so the home was well fit. A little over 2 years ago, he and Maribel were surprised with an unexpected pregnancy. The result was not one child, but two! She was having twins. He's been busting his hump the last several years with the hopes and aspirations of being able to move his family into a more size appropriate home.
On October 24th of 2015, his efforts were sidelined by a terribly unfortunate work related accident. He was working atop some scaffolding when he had a misstep and fell to the ground. Thankfully, he didn't sustain any life-threatening injuries, but he did land on his elbow, which basically disintegrated upon impact.
He was taken by ambulance to the hospital where the orthapedic surgeons performed surgery the following morning. The diagnosis was the most extreme injury one can sustain short of losing a limb. The doctors referred to the injury as the "Terrible Triad". The triad injury, as you can gather, consists of 3 contributing factors: 1.) radial head fracture, 2.) coronoid fracture & 3.) elbow dislocation. So essentially, the elbow pops out of location and is broken in two other places, in one fell swoop. He's now equipped with a myriad of hardware and braces.
As a result of the injury, the prognosis is somewhat grey. There's a good chance that even after the 4 to 6 months it will take to heal, that he'll never have enough use of his arm again to be able to paint. We don't know for sure, it's just too early to tell.
As many Americans are right now, Jeremy is uninsured. His business carries insurance, which is there in the event of property damage or if one of the folks he has subcontracted to work for him has an injury. However, that coverage does not cover the proprietor himself.
Long story short -- Jeremy is struggling and his family is feeling the effects. My mom and I have taken it upon ourselves to start this fund for him. Jeremy has far too much pride to ask anyone for a handout and if he knew we were doing this, there's a good chance he'd beat my ass (with his good arm, that is). Obviously, he'll figure it out soon enough and I'll deal with the consequences then.
The most immediate need is physical therapy. Without therapy, the fracture will not heal properly and there's a good chance the hardware will lock up all together and he could have a permanent loss of range-of-motion. A single session of P.T. costs $150. His doctor's orders call for 3 sessions per week for an undetermined amount of time, but it could take anywhere from 4 to 6 months. I can't stress enough how catastrophic of a limb injury this is.
Our goal amount doesn't even scratch the surface of the surgeon's bills, the hospital stay, the rent, groceries & utilities or anything else, but we've got to start somewhere. All that aside, Christmas will be upon us in just a few short weeks and he has a 13 year old daughter and 2 year old twins who are likely to endure a Christmas that won't consist of much under the tree.
Anything will help, even if it's only a buck or two. If you can't contribute, please share the link.
My family is my world and my brothers mean more to me than I can put in words. Knowing that he's in pain is bad enough. Knowing that he's dealing with the emotional stress of not being able to provide for his familiy on top of it is that much worse.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this story.
Happy Holidays,
Justin Eagon