On May 27th, 2026, our family received some devastating news. My older brother Aaron Wachtel was in a tragic motorized bicycle accident. While out mountain biking on a favorite trail in the Springfield area, he lost control on a curve and flipped headfirst over the handlebars straight into a tree, going about 13 to 15 mph.

After being rushed to the local trauma center and rushed into emergency surgery to reduce swelling on his spinal cord, he is in recovery; however, he is currently a quadraplegic, paralyzed from the neck down. He is facing a very long, grueling recovery that will take months to years of therapy. After being discharged, he will have to go to a rehab center for spinal cord injury rehabilitation that will take him far from his family for an extended period of time.

We are unsure of what the future will hold for our family, but we have hope, faith, and the will to get him to the end of this long marathon journey we have started on with him.

Update: 06/02/26 they had to put him on a ventilator to help with breathing and to allow his diaphragm and lungs some rest. Please continue to pray and have positive thoughts!

"If you can't run, you walk, and if you can't walk, you crawl, and if you can't do that... you find someone to carry you." - Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly