As many of you know, our daughter Sierra was in terrible car accident on August 24, 2017.  For those of you who don't know her story, I will give you some background. She sustained traumatic brain injury, diffused axonal injury ( which means the two hemispheres of her brain shifted from the impact of the blows to her head), four brain bleeds, one of which was in her brain stem, and tore the tendons and ligaments in her neck.  Her back was broken in five places, she had surgery on her pelvis to put it back together, her lungs collapsed twice, she tore her meniscus and ACL in her knee, she had to be stitched up in many parts of her body because she was ejected from the car, flew 65 feet downhill and landed in some mesquite bushes that left her with gashes and gaping wounds that had to be stitched up.  Her road to recovery has been extremely tumultuous.  After being in a coma for 16 days and  on life support for two weeks, then in the hospital for four months, she has had to relearn everything; including walking, talking, swallowing, eating, writing, and simple tasks such as tying her shoes, dressing herself, and taking a shower.  It has become the biggest fight of her life,  and she has faced it like a warrior.  Sometimes she wants to give up because the road has been so hard reconnecting an entire new brain.  But we won't let her.  We believe there is a reason she came back to us, we believe she will find a new life,  gain her independence again, and do great things for our world.  To date, she still struggles with her memory, she gets headaches that send her to the hospital, and she has days where she is completely confused about everything.   She has problems with her vision and has had nine different prescriptions since the accident, yet she still suffers from double vision and problems with her depth perception and peripheral vision.  She also gets very tired when she experiences any kind of stimulation.  Because of this, she is unable to work or go back to college where she was studying to be a trauma nurse on the full ride scholarship she received for being an awesome pitcher in softball.  She can not drive, and can only be left alone for short periods of time.  In essence, she has completely lost the independence and freedom she once knew. She suffers from depression, anger, anxiety, and PTSD.  She often tells us that it would have been better if she didn't come back.  She is desperate to get her brain back to 100%, and as her family, we hope and pray for that as well.

After much research, her Dad found a place in southern California called The Amen Clinic for people with brain injuries.  There is a program called the SPECT test and they have a 90% success rate of bringing injured brains back to 100%, specifically TBI patients.  The downside, of course, is money.  They don't take insurance and it costs $5000 with a $ 300 deposit to hold a position for her.  We have to be there for 3 to 4 days while she undergoes the program.  Unfortunately, we have exhausted all our finances trying to get her to the point she is today.  We are humbly asking for financial help to get our baby girl to this facility that we believe is her best chance to getting her back 100%. #TeamBdog

Thank you all in advance,

Art Gonzalez and Lee Anne Sgambati
(hopeful and grateful parents of Sierra Gonzalez)