Hi there! Many of you know us, and even if you don’t, welcome. 2 weeks ago, our darling boy Cassian was involved in a play-related accident with another child (not his sister), and he was dropped on a stair-step in a playroom. He acted normal the rest of that Friday, and it wasn’t until I was nursing him at night that I noticed a swelling on the side of his head. I pressed down into the swelling and felt a definite crack in the bone, right over his right ear. He wasn’t vomiting, behaving abnormally, or acting like he was in any pain; nor was there any bruising or color changes besides the single swelling.

We rushed him to the nearest hospital (an HonorHealth), where they performed a CT and determined he had cracked two area in his skull (temporal, parietal), and had a parietal brain bleed, that had stabilized. We were then taken via ambulance to Phoenix Children’s to be evaluated. After many tests (x-rays, bloodwork), and almost a full day in-hospital, it was determined by Neurosurgery that he was stable enough to be discharged, although he would be concussed and still had the fracture, so he needed to have no more head/skull impacts for the foreseeable future. He would also need a recheck with Neurosurgery in about 3 weeks, but due to how far they book out, that appointment isn’t actually until early December.

Cassian has been doing incredible since his discharge, and aside from some sleepiness the first few days, has had no behavioral or neurological changes, thank God. His fracture continues to feel smaller and we are eagerly awaiting his check-up.

Why we’re asking for help.

I am a new-grad veterinarian, and so even though I have not been working for that long (less than 2 months), my new salary makes us ineligible for state aid any more. Cassian previously also dealt with RSV in-hospital, which we are still paying down, due to a similar situation. And we don’t have private insurance yet as I am not eligible for 90 days. However, the hospital bills have a very short grace period before they get sent to collections, and the different departments bill separately, so it becomes multiple different billers with different pay-by dates, all within short time periods before bills go to collections, again all separately. And although we have begun paying them down, the time frame to collections doesn’t extend, so it’s very difficult to pay them all within a short time-frame.

We’re looking at probably less than $10,000 overall, but wanted to set it at $10,000 as some bills haven’t come through yet, and we still have a follow-up appointment that may include more sedation + imaging, like his initial ER visit did. But if more than is needed for his bills is donated, we will donate 100% of the remaining total to Project Mexico, an Orthodox charity close to our hearts. Thank you in advance, and God bless!