Helping Our Family Through a Medical Emergency

On March 14th, 2022, my husband Dylan was attacked at his place of employment by a fellow employee. Despite having barely any interaction with him that day, and no history of physical or verbal altercations with this person in the past, this coworker attacked Dylan in the face with a power drill. It left him with 5 internal sutures between his eyes, 16 external stitches, a staple in the back of his head, a chipped tooth, and a nasal bone fracture. Since the 14th he’s had multiple visits to the ER, follow up appointments with specialists to assess his broken nose, and just recently, a surgery to hopefully correct the nose fracture. He’s been on pain medications that make him foggy and sick, which is only a mildly better alternative than dealing with the unimaginable pain. As you can probably imagine, sharing photos of his injuries is not something he’s quite comfortable with yet.

While we navigate through the process of filing a workman’s compensation claim, we’re currently unsure if this situation is covered but are working with lawyers to determine more. We’ve been left to pay a majority of the medical bills, specialist visits, and prescription medication costs up front. As a family of four without health insurance, this has put us very quickly into financial hardship. In addition to this, he’s also lost his income indefinitely while he heals from such a traumatic face wound; I’ve also lost partial income due to having to take off multiple days since the 14th in order to accompany him to appointments, surgery, and tend to our two children while he rests on heavy medication.

We are very lucky to have the support of both of our families who have stepped in to help with childcare, food and household chores, as well as medical needs while we try and regain our footing. We’re incredibly thankful that this wasn’t any worse. But the reality of our situation, as is the same for many others, is that we live paycheck to paycheck. We’re hard working service industry people with two young children. We live a modest life and are grateful for what we have, but this incident has left us shaken and overwhelmed for the future as we dig ourselves out from under this. My husband is a caring and compassionate partner, and a loving father who doesn’t deserve what happened to him.

We wholeheartedly appreciate the love and support we’ve received from family and friends. If you feel inclined to donate, we are opening our hearts to any help the universe sends our way, however uncomfortable it may feel to us right now. Donations will go to medical and household bills so that our family can focus on physical and mental healing without an added layer of financial stress. Thanks for reading.