A week ago our world was turned upside down.

My little 17 year old brother, Gavin, was in a terrible car accident and left in critical condition. He was run off the road by another vehicle and his car flipped 5-6 times and he was ejected through the sunroof on the 4th flip.

He was airlifted to UTMC and has been in the trauma surgical ICU since July 16th.

He was “pretty much dead on arrival.” He had massive internal bleeding. He required large amounts of blood and rushed into the operating room for abdominal surgery. Once in the OR they discovered his spleen would need to be removed to stop the bleeding and he had sustained some lacerations/ damage to his liver, kidneys, and bowels.

Afterwards he was taken for a CT scan and that is when we learned about the rest of his injuries. He shattered several vertebrae in his back, broke his ribs, shattered his pelvis, broke his femur on his left leg, and shattered the knee on his left leg.

On the second night they performed back surgery and they placed an external fixator on his left leg. His spine has been fused from t12- L5. He also tore the covering to his spinal cord so that had to be sewn back together. The orthopedic surgeon said, “it’s one of the worst cases he has seen in 21 years.”

We don’t know if he will be able to walk again, but he is wiggling his toes so that’s a good sign.

Wednesday they performed another surgery on his left leg and it was much worse than they expected once they got in there. They have told us that they may have to amputate his left leg.

Today they did another clean out procedure on that left leg and are a little more optimistic about the way it looks. He will have another clean out procedure either Sunday or Monday.

He has had numerous complications along the way and I’ve lost count on how much blood they’ve given him. It’s definitely over 20 units at this point.

Ways you can help if you feel led to do so:

- Pray. Pray specifically that he will be able to walk again, that he will be able to keep his left leg, and that all the infection clears up very quickly. He will have another procedure on that left leg Sunday or Monday, so pray that goes well.

- Donations for living, food, and medical expenses. Our mom, Arlene, is a single mom with one income that she isn’t going to have during all of this.

I don’t want to end this without sharing the blessings from God.

- it’s an absolute miracle he is alive

- it’s a miracle he has no brain injuries or head trauma

- we are blessed that the rhabdo is not much of a concern anymore

- we are blessed that the small bowel obstruction seems like it will resolve without surgery.

- he can wiggle his toes on both feet

- he can move his right leg

- he has feeling in all 4 extremities

- he is talking and has no confusion

Forgive us if we don’t respond quickly to calls and texts. This has been the most overwhelming and heartbreaking thing. Gavin was about to start his senior year of high school, but he will have a long road of recovery ahead of him now.