Accessibility for Chris

Hello my name is Heather Dutra-Mendoza. I am a single mother of three incredible children. In 2016, we were in a horrific car wreck caused by an intoxicated driver. Christopher suffered a broken neck and a spinal cord injury at t10. I suffered a broken sternum. Over the past 7 years, we have come a long way with the help of God. After five brain surgeries, including a VP shunt and a subsuractinoid shunt, and countless hours of physical therapy, Christopher is stable and adapted to handicapable life. As you can imagine, it has been unbelievably difficult to aquire a normal income. We are thankful for kind and helpful family and church families for helping us through these trying times. Christopher is 12 years old now and weighing in at 173 lbs. God has kept me strong enough up to this point to lift him in and out of a regular vehicle, however, it is difficult. I am asking for this money so that we can acquire a wheelchair accessible van and some handicap equipment and furniture that we do not already have. I understand that the amount is a lot, but charitable donations are write offs on your taxes, and you could not know the relief it will bring to our family. God and family has gotten us through up to this point. In order to give you the full picture of our family I would like to also introduce my oldest child who is 18 years old and suffers from mental issues caused by the car wreck. Juliet became the child without the greatest need at 11 years old and unbeknownst to me blamed herself for her brother's broken neck because the children fought that night and Christopher ended up going with us and Juliet did not. That Base has caused mental issues which were fed by being dragged around with us to therapies in downtown Louisville where she attended a downtown Louisville school being a country kid. Her school was the last of my worries as I learned how to care for my newly handicapped child. Her education was basically left up to her and she ended up dropping out and getting her GED due to my only being one person and unable to focus on her needs. It is also my great goal to help her get her life back on track and it's hard to do without the correct vehicle for our family. The youngest member of our family is Lily Rain who is seven. Lily was also in the car wreck, but unharmed. She was 5 months old at the time. She has grown up beside her brother and been around for all the therapies and brain surgeries. I am fighting her father, who was convicted in a court of law for causing the car wreck, right now for custody due to a falsely alligated restraining order against me claiming mental instability and drug use. Both of these allegations have been proven false, however, as we all know attorneys are expensive, as are tests to combat these allegations. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your financial help and prayers for our family.