Cathy Topping Jackson needs your help!
Saturday May 22nd started out as a perfect day. It was the last day Steve and Cathy Jackson could take in the slow winding old highways around southern Oregon before the long straight ride home back to Stockton, Ca on Sunday. Grabbed some breakfast with their fellow rider friends Jim and Mary. Jumped on the bikes to kill some time since the Elks wasn’t open. If only the Elks had been open.
THE ACCIDENT
11:59am our dad’s watch stopped, the moment every one of the Jackson 6 lives pivoted. And now we realize so many more.
From our Dads constant replaying of what happened with some confirmation from Jim and Mary and what the bike now looks like, here’s what likely happened.
Steve and Cathy were riding their 2018 Street Glide Harley Davidson, their newer, bigger, safer bike in front of their friends Jim and Mary. Steve set his cruise control at 45mph. While riding on the edge of Medford, Oregon heading North on Foothill road and approaching the cross street of Dry Creek road on their right, a driver approached a stop si
gn, only looking right themselves for oncoming traffic so they could make a left hand turn. Never completely stopping. Never looking left. Not knowing that decision was about to change everything.
Our Dad says that any danger on the road that is coming their way, our Mom always drives a finger into his side. As a warning. To make sure he sees it. He never got that Saturday. She may have never seen what was about to happen.
After realizing that the car was not stopping, our Dad swerved left in the attempt to avoid it. The left swerve put him into an angled skid on the left side of the bike. A metal plate below the foot pedal has been grounded down proving this. But the crash bars on the left have zero scratches. He never laid the bike completely down on the left.
Here’s where a split second reaction changed it all. For a moment, there was a chance they were going to skid right by the vehicle. The vehicles driver just had to hit the brakes. They didn’t. They acc
elerated. Most likely in the attempt to get out of the way. This caused the car to collide with the Harley.
From the looks of the injuries and the bike, the contact was all on the right side with our Mom taking it full force. Our Dad recalls jumping up and not seeing my mom. Then he said he wanted to go after the driver. He said he then looked down to look at the time and noticed his watch was missing and his hand was covered in bl
ood. He then saw our Mom. Unconscious. With dirt in her mouth. He said he went to wipe it away but there was blood dripping all over her face and helmet from him. Then he collapsed next to her.
Next thing he remembers there are people around. Someone is holding his head in place on the ground. He’s trying to stand up. He’s kicking his feet. He wants people to leave him alone and just “save my wife!”
THE MIRACLE
Well whoever it was, listened. The helping hands arrive and the human angels descended.
What happens now is nothing short of a miracle. They had IMMEDIATE trained health care professionals assisting their trauma. THREE of them. Two separate nurses in their vehic
les drove up right after the accident and rushed to our Moms side. Our Dad remembers sitting up for those around him to remove his big leather jacket and seeing an old man came walking down a driveway. They literally landed at the foot of a driveway of a retired SURGEON. And we believe our mom was Intubated on the scene before paramedics arrived. Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center was only 4 miles away.
It was a true BEST case scenario. Immediate help. Nurse
s. Surgeon. Level II trauma hospital.
The front end of the bike is mangled. The handle bars are loose. The crash bars have deep road scratches which literally saved both of their bodies from the hip down. The rear, hard walled, saddle bag exploded into pieces, the passenger back rear broken off, right rear tail lights smashed in with the luggage rack cracked, bent license plate and a dented gas tank.
THE RESULT
As a result of the opposing forces of the bike throwing her into an approaching car, Cathy suffered from a subarachnoid bleed, a fractured nasal bone, multiple fractured ribs on her right side, one rib broken in 3 places, a lacerated right lung leading to a tension pneumothorax, soft tissue injuries to her neck and right arm. She was unconscious immediately after the accident. It is not known when she was intubated, but she was in the field.
In the emergency department, she could move all four extremities. She was following commands. CT scans showed her tension pneumothorax and her subarachnoid bleed. She was then sedated to be comfortable on the ventilator, and so they could place the External Ventricular Drain and a right sided chest tube.
By Saturday night, she was on 3 drips for sedation and 2 for hemodynamic support. She was on moderate vent settings.
She is currently at Asante Rogue Regional in their ICU, bed 4. She continues to be supported by the ventilator, external ventricular drain, drips for sedation and hemodynamics, a c-spine collar, an IVC filter, and a chest tube. Sometimes her oxygen is low, sometimes it needs to be high. She is consistently battling a temperature regulation issue. Her most recent CT scan showed a 2cm area of necrotic brain tissue on her cerebellum that will definitely affect her recovery.
She has survived two code blues. She continues to fight. She needs all the prayers she can get.
As for our Dad, he was discharged Saturday. A bit disoriented, completely sore, is unable to lift his arms above his shoulder and has a gashed and swollen left hand.
THE REQUEST
So here we are, asking for help. The road ahead is unknown. Has no time frame besides it not being a short one. We experienced something like this 3 years ago with Crystal Castles Stroke, and we know all to well what this could look like. Financially. Physically. Mentally. Logistically.
After 4 nights in hotels and eating at any local restaurant, our dad is currently living in our parents RV on site of the Hospital. Carlie has her RV set up next to him for additional lodging for us to help to support our dad. There is no length of stay determined, no projected time off we will need and the expenses are compounding so w
e can all be here to support Steve and be here for Cathy.
Let us tell you about this woman. Cathy Jackson is a determined lady. Stubborn. Relentless. Demanding. Loving. And a giver. She’s the bread winner who had no intention of never not working. She's a realtor and loan officer who is always doing something. She’s either locking down the best deal, making lives better, always helping others find a house, fix their finances to get a house and making sure everyone has the lowest rate possible. She is a fixer and everyone then becomes part of her family because of it. She’s a magnet. She was even working during this vacation. Had deals to close when she got home. There were even projects that she needed to start upon her return; I heard a client tell her last Wednesday, “when you get back, I need 8 loans refinanced on all my properties.” Even the one taking over her work right now just said “I had no clue she had all these deals about to close!”
Now. She can’t do any of that. Forced to rest for the first time in her life. The longest nap she’s ever had. With zero income. No option for work in the future. And as a commission only worker...she does not pay into state disability insurance. All because someone else made a mistake.
The fortune of medical costs has begun. Work has stopped. And as out of staters, a lot of travel has been initiated.
So here we are asking for help. In return for all the times she has helped. This is created because of the outpouring of donations that have already begun. We want to keep it in one place. To get the ball rolling and to help our Dad. And more importantly help our Mom for whatever the future holds.
We do want to say thank you for the love and support thus far. We knew our mom had cast a large net around her, we just didn’t know it was this big. This is easily the hardest thing any of us have been through. The unexpected. The perfect disaster. The setbacks. But we have hope. We have hope that our Dad gets his world back. And that us kids get our Mom back. And that everyone gets their Cathy back. She is a force to be reckoned with and her family needs everyone’s help.
~The Jackson 6
Crystal Hapgood
