Brehan's Medical Fund

Hello friends, family and community members,

Many of you know our good friend, Brehan Todd. She is a designer and stylist in Portland, where she has lived for the past 8 1/2 years. She grew up in Spokane, WA and Missoula, MT before moving to New York for college to begin her design career. She is a loving, generous and caring friend, with a  creative and passionate energy. Her jewelry designs have been sold and worn all over the world!

Recently Brehan has run into a series of unfortunate circumstances. After being ill for two years, doctors discovered that she had acute gallbladder disease and a little over a year ago she had surgery to remove her gallbladder and  over 32 gallstones through laparoscopic surgery. Immediately after the surgery, she suffered from a liver infection. Once the infection cleared, she resumed her recovery. She regained some strength, and returned to work after one month.

Eventually, she began to heal, but after a full year, things were not completey back to normal , as projected. Brehan suffered from chronic pain in her upper torso and back, making it difficult to keep up her job. Her physical therapist recently discovered adhesions had grown between the four incision areas on her torso. The tightness and pulling of knotty scar tissue has caused misalignment and muscle spasms all over her back and upper body,  making lifting, bending and moving extremely painful and often impossible. She began a regimen with physical therapists to work on these issues, through strength and stretching exercises. After a month and a half of daily work, things were improving.

But just last week, on the morning of Thursday June 15, Brehan was hit by an SUV in a crosswalk near her apartment in downtown Portland. Brehan did not obtain any broken bones or fractures, but the impact of the vehicle struck her in her still-healing surgery area. The impact brought her body onto the hood of the car, and when the breaks were turned on, she was propelled off the hood onto the street.  She landed on her back and hips,  then broke the fall with her elbows and wrists.  She lay on the street  until a witness came to move her out of the danger of passing traffic and help stabilize her and eventually an ambulance took her to Legacy ER for examination and treatment.

Brehan has been getting various medical checkups and care since the accident.  She is still suffering from full body whiplash, her top neck vertebrae is out of place, and her entire spine is internally bruised.  There are both internal and external contusions throughout her body. The skin on her wrists and elbows were scraped down almost to muscle. The bone misalignment has begun to pull other bones further out of place, creating tension, swelling and inflammation of all the tissue and bones connected. Currently she does not have full range of motion in her neck or right shoulder. She is unable to lift anything above one pound or bend at the waist, making many daily tasks impossible. The  traumatic mental effects of this event will be ongoing and contribute to the stress of a person who already suffered from debilitating anxiety before this accident.

It’s hard to know what the long term effects of a serious accident like this will be. At this point her doctors are not sure how long it will take for the affected soft tissue, bones and fascia to heal.  Right now, Brehan has been instructed by medical professionals to rest and recover until her condition improves.  She will continue physical therapy to get back to a place of wellbeing as soon as possible.

Due to skyrocketing cost of living, and the housing crisis in Portland, Brehan has had to move twice already this year and she would love not to have to move again.  Brehan’s family members with limited resources are helping as much as they are able to. 

Please join us to help Brehan get through this and ultimately thrive after this unfortunate accident.

Let’s help her cover her rent and basic costs of living so she can keep her apartment downtown, at least for the coming month. Let’s help her buy groceries. Let’s help her get medical help and treatments, and be able get to the doctor appointments she needs to get well again.

 
Brehan wants to get healthy as soon as possible, but the financial uncertainty of the future makes it very hard to cope. Her goals are to resume working at her job at Nike Inc as a stylist and be able to be active and healthy again very soon so she can put this behind her and live her life again. Let’s get together and support Brehan to help make this happen!

Any amount of support is greatly appreciated and meaningful to Brehan and all the people who care about her.


We are reaching out to her people: those who know and love Brehan, for your support. We are her community. And we're asking her community to come together to help her through this time.
 
Please give whatever you are able to today,


Thank you!

Cielle + Satya + Jess