Bryan the Beast

On August 19th Bryan, Rhiannon, Cooper, and Keely's lives changed in an instant!  Bryan was training for the Ironman and was hit by a car.  He was at National Guard near Albermarle, NC riding his bike when it happened. He was taken to a hospital near by and then shortly transferred to the trauma hospital in Charlotte.  He remained critical and in ICU for 13 days! During that time he had multiple intense surgeries, fought a major infection, and was sedated and intubated.  On August 31st he was transferred to a step down unit from the ICU and has been there since.  The major surgeries are behind him, the infection is cleared, and he is getting better every day! However, he still has a very long road ahead of him! Bryan does have a brain injury. This makes things difficult, but in true Bryan fashion he is WOWing us all! He has sat up multiple times, he has stood up, and he has even taken a few steps with the help of a walker and therapist and the encouragement of his wife and friend.  There is talk of moving Bryan to the in-house rehab facility here in Wilmington soon.  Bryan will have to stay here for a considerable amount of time.  During all of this both Bryan and Rhiannon are out of work for obvious reasons.  Many people have asked how they can help.  I have started this page to allow anyone that wants to a chance to help.  Let me give you a little background on this couple: I'll start by saying Bryan is a bad ass.  He graduated from SIU in 1999 and then pursued becoming Special Forces (Green Berets) in the U.S. Army.  He is currently doing contract work helping to train soldiers. Most of his work he keeps secretive, but we all know we owe him a lot of thanks for keeping us safe!  He did take a brief hiatus to pursue his dream of being a firefighter.  As you can see he fights for you and me to live the life we do! So it only seems fair that we help him in return.  He is also an avid runner, biker, and tri athlete!  Let's just say for his birthday every year he runs however many miles are the equivalent of the years he is turning (and he's 42). Beast! Warrior! Rhiannon is also pretty impressive being an ER nurse and taking care of people. This couple has centered their lives around taking care of other people so I think it is important that we take care of them now.  We do not know how long they will be out of work or the bills that will be coming in.  We want to keep life as normal as we can for their incredible kids and make sure they have the money for fun and extra curriculars and things that make them happy! So many things are uncertain at this time and we want to make sure that finances are something they don't have to worry about.  Anything to put this family's mind at rest would be so grateful.  They have enough on their platter. You can also follow their story on the CaringBridge Site (Site Name: loveforlangan).  They are so thankful for everyone's love and support this far.  They truly do know how blessed they are and are very grateful for all the people that have rallied around them! The fight is not over and they still have a long way to go, but if you know Bryan, you know he will finish this marathon.  They are warriors!