Darla's Urgent Leg Surgery

My mother, Darla Torrez, has been a local midwife and herbalist in Missoula for over 20 years.
She has helped hundreds of people, not only new parents, through pregnancy, delivery and post partum, but hundreds of others in every way possible. If you know my mother, you know what I mean.
I can't recall how many people have come to her to be nursed back to health, sometimes in her own bed, with homemade teas and medicines. I've heard her say she isn't actually a doctor before creating slings and splints for those who couldn't afford a doctor’s help.

I have never seen her turn a person in need away, even if that means sacrificing something she really wants to do or time she doesn't really have. I have seen her help women through the most difficult pregnancies, day and night, before and well after delivery, with a wealth of knowledge, patience and care, and when they forget to pay her, she never sends them a bill. Darla feels like she is too close to a woman, once she is her midwife, to demand money from her.
I have seen her spend hundreds of dollars that she didn't really have on herbs and bottles and labels because she knows her friends need Zoom, Winter in Missoula and Cold Snap, and as those in need come to Darla in need of healing, she never reminds them that it costs her money and energy to make. She says it can ruin the magic of the medicine.
Now Darla needs our help…

Five years ago she was on her horse, Kokapelli, endurance riding up a mountain when a dog ran in front of her and the horse reared up, knocking her down the hill. She landed on her feet and the impact broke the tibial plateau, the shin bone right under her knee. The force of the landing caused her femur to basically shear off a chunk of bone from her broken tibia.
She rode her horse out and had emergency surgery in which they bolted a rod splint inside her leg. The splint is supposed to be temporary only while the break is healing, but she has had hers for five years now. It has caused chronic pain and inflammation throughout her body and since the tibial plateau is a critical weight-bearding area it has made it very difficult to exercise and manage the metabolic response her body is having to the long term injury causing excess weight gain . She still smiles and laughs but she lays awake in pain and she shouldn't have to.
Over a year ago she started a health savings plan and bought health insurance which can help pay for physical therapy, prescriptions, nationalist and the $18,000 urgent surgery to remove the splint as soon as she meets the $8000 deductible, which is all we need to help turn her life back around. The extra can help pay her other life expenses and recovery time.
We would like to have the surgery scheduled for May because she happens to be off call for a few weeks and could have the summer to recover.
If you know Darla Torrez please donate. Whether she has helped you or a loved one or even if you simply know someone like Darla, donate. She has been an amazing mother and friend to so many, in so many way, we can’t just stand by while she sits in pain.
If I dare…even a $27 donation can really help my mother achieve her health back.