Donation protected
This campaign is for Chris Spellman from Coeur d'Alene, ID. He is cousins by marriage to my husband, Jay Stokes, and happens to be one of his best friends as well. My name is Emily Stokes and my husband and I were part of the search efforts in finding Chris who was lost in the woods. This campaign is to help offer some relief to medical expenses that are adding up due to a series of unfortunate events resulting in a side by side wreck, 42 hours in the woods alone, a one week stay in the hospital and many physical therapy appointments to follow in the coming months. Please read the story below for full details.
On the evening of Saturday, May 2, 2020 Chris Spellman went missing in the woods of Saltese, Montana. After a series of unfortunate events, which ended with his side by sides front lower control arm broken off from the frame, Chris was left stranded in the woods. In his dazed, concussed, and confused state he decided to trek up and over the mountain to get back to camp where his wife was waiting for him. That evening when Chris didn't show up to camp his wife started to panic. Some of the locals knew of the events that had taken place and reported what occurred to local law enforcement, as did Chris's wife, and the search began at dawn the next morning.
On Sunday, May 3, 2020, local Search and Rescue, the local police department, and Missoula Search and Rescue looked for Chris. That night they sent up a helicopter with a thermal imaging unit to hopefully locate him. All attempts in finding him on Sunday failed.
On the morning of Monday, May 4, 2020 around 5:30 am, I received a text message from Chris's step mom notifying me that he was missing. (Chris happens to be my husband's cousin, through marriage, and one of his best friends.) I woke my husband up to notify him of the situation. We immediately called Chris's wife to see what we could do to help. Due to the COVID-19 Search and Rescue did not allow citizens to help with rescue attempts on Sunday May 3rd; however, Monday (that day) they were allowing citizens to help. My husband and I immediately started packing and headed to Montana.
Once we got to Saltese we met up with Search and Rescue, Chris's dad, his uncle, and his wife. We were briefed as to the circumstances that led up to the time that we arrived to headquarters. Search and Rescue lead us up to the crash site (around 11 am) and advised us to tread lightly and watch our steps so we did not disrupt any potential tracking indicators. We were informed that human trackers from Kootenai County were on their way and we needed to wait for them before we could begin our search. The head advisor for Search and Rescue headed back down to headquarters to wait for the human trackers. A few of the Search and Rescue members stayed with us to fly drones into the woods in hopes of finding Chris without disrupting any potential footsteps.
Chris's Uncle insisted from the moment we all arrived in Saltese that he was going to head up the hillside opposite of where Chris was believed to be in case he saw any movement. Around noon when Chris's Dad radioed up to Chris's Uncle, Chris's Uncle reported that he thought he could hear yelling. We disregarded the information as there was another search party going on for a missing Spokane elderly gentleman. Around 12:30 pm Chris's dad again contacted Chris's uncle, and again, he reported he thought he could hear yelling. Around 1 pm a Missoula County Sheriff showed up, at which time we were able to turn off all the side by sides that were charging the drone batteries, and we used his vehicle to charge the drones. At approximately 1:10 pm the Sheriff looked to us and said he thought he heard yelling. We all stopped. We listened... We HEARD! Someone was yelling, 'HELP!" We yelled back to see if it was Chris.... once we identified that it was Chris's voice we took of running. He continued to yell, "Help, my legs, I can't walk."
Chris was about 200-250 yards up the hill from where his side by side was totaled. In order to get to him we had to run through a creek and waist high snow.
At approximately 1:20 pm Montana time we had found Chris. After 42 hours alone in the wilderness we found him. Being found was only the beginning of the struggle.
When we found Chris he had no shoes on. In his hypothermia delusional state, he removed his shoes because, "they were wet and cold." We do not know how long he was without shoes. As for clothes.... he had torn socks, soaked jeans, a hoodie and a t-shirt. We stripped him of his wet hoodie and shirt and preformed what first aid we knew how. At this point the majority of Search and Rescue was still down at headquarters waiting for the human trackers to show up. They were contacted by the one Search and Rescue team member that was with us and caught up to us within 15 minutes. They brought in the litter which we loaded Chris up and removed him from the woods.
Chris was then taken to Superior Montana's small Hospital. Miraculously when he got there his temperature was at 97.6 degrees. He had a black eye, no broken bones, swollen legs and feet with some frost bite on his feet, but the extent was unknown until he got to Kootenai and a few days had passed. Due to COVID19 his wife was not able to be with him until the last hour he was there before he was transported to Kootenai Health.
After about 5 hours in Superior Hospital, Chris was then taken by ambulance from Superior Montana to Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
While at Kootenai Health Chris spent a week in which his wife was thankfully able to be there with him. Miraculously no toes were lost due to the frost bite. Chris does have nerve damage and has little to no feeling from his ankles down. The doctors say it could be years, if ever, that he gets that feeling back.
Chris has been out of work for 3 weeks and is now allowed 2-3 hours a day of light duty to help pay his monthly expenses. Medical expenses that have been billed thus far total $40,000, $8,200 of which he is responsible for out of pocket and more to come. The $40,000 is not the end of the expenses. He has physical therapy and continued doctor appointments to check on the progression of his tissue grown and nerve damage.
For those of you who do not know Chris Spellman he is a local mechanic here in the Coeur d'Alene area and would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He is a loving father and husband. On more than one occasion he has taken my husband, myself and our children out to lunch just because. He is the kind of guy to do things for others without expecting anything in return. He is a trust worthy, hard working, honest man that has had a serious of unfortunate events happen to him during this crazy time in our world.
We would like to give a special thanks to all of the officers and Search and Rescue parties that participated in helping to make getting Chris home possible.
100% of your donations will go towards Chris's Medical Expenses to help ease the financial strain that has been placed on his family due to these unforeseen circumstances. He has been set up as a beneficiary and will be the one to receive all of the money directly from Go Fund me to pay medical bills as they come in.
Please take this as an opportunity to help ease the financial expenses of a local mechanic that has always gone above and beyond to help those he comes into contact with. We appreciate any donations made even if it is a single dollar.
On the evening of Saturday, May 2, 2020 Chris Spellman went missing in the woods of Saltese, Montana. After a series of unfortunate events, which ended with his side by sides front lower control arm broken off from the frame, Chris was left stranded in the woods. In his dazed, concussed, and confused state he decided to trek up and over the mountain to get back to camp where his wife was waiting for him. That evening when Chris didn't show up to camp his wife started to panic. Some of the locals knew of the events that had taken place and reported what occurred to local law enforcement, as did Chris's wife, and the search began at dawn the next morning.
On Sunday, May 3, 2020, local Search and Rescue, the local police department, and Missoula Search and Rescue looked for Chris. That night they sent up a helicopter with a thermal imaging unit to hopefully locate him. All attempts in finding him on Sunday failed.
On the morning of Monday, May 4, 2020 around 5:30 am, I received a text message from Chris's step mom notifying me that he was missing. (Chris happens to be my husband's cousin, through marriage, and one of his best friends.) I woke my husband up to notify him of the situation. We immediately called Chris's wife to see what we could do to help. Due to the COVID-19 Search and Rescue did not allow citizens to help with rescue attempts on Sunday May 3rd; however, Monday (that day) they were allowing citizens to help. My husband and I immediately started packing and headed to Montana.
Once we got to Saltese we met up with Search and Rescue, Chris's dad, his uncle, and his wife. We were briefed as to the circumstances that led up to the time that we arrived to headquarters. Search and Rescue lead us up to the crash site (around 11 am) and advised us to tread lightly and watch our steps so we did not disrupt any potential tracking indicators. We were informed that human trackers from Kootenai County were on their way and we needed to wait for them before we could begin our search. The head advisor for Search and Rescue headed back down to headquarters to wait for the human trackers. A few of the Search and Rescue members stayed with us to fly drones into the woods in hopes of finding Chris without disrupting any potential footsteps.
Chris's Uncle insisted from the moment we all arrived in Saltese that he was going to head up the hillside opposite of where Chris was believed to be in case he saw any movement. Around noon when Chris's Dad radioed up to Chris's Uncle, Chris's Uncle reported that he thought he could hear yelling. We disregarded the information as there was another search party going on for a missing Spokane elderly gentleman. Around 12:30 pm Chris's dad again contacted Chris's uncle, and again, he reported he thought he could hear yelling. Around 1 pm a Missoula County Sheriff showed up, at which time we were able to turn off all the side by sides that were charging the drone batteries, and we used his vehicle to charge the drones. At approximately 1:10 pm the Sheriff looked to us and said he thought he heard yelling. We all stopped. We listened... We HEARD! Someone was yelling, 'HELP!" We yelled back to see if it was Chris.... once we identified that it was Chris's voice we took of running. He continued to yell, "Help, my legs, I can't walk."
Chris was about 200-250 yards up the hill from where his side by side was totaled. In order to get to him we had to run through a creek and waist high snow.
At approximately 1:20 pm Montana time we had found Chris. After 42 hours alone in the wilderness we found him. Being found was only the beginning of the struggle.
When we found Chris he had no shoes on. In his hypothermia delusional state, he removed his shoes because, "they were wet and cold." We do not know how long he was without shoes. As for clothes.... he had torn socks, soaked jeans, a hoodie and a t-shirt. We stripped him of his wet hoodie and shirt and preformed what first aid we knew how. At this point the majority of Search and Rescue was still down at headquarters waiting for the human trackers to show up. They were contacted by the one Search and Rescue team member that was with us and caught up to us within 15 minutes. They brought in the litter which we loaded Chris up and removed him from the woods.
Chris was then taken to Superior Montana's small Hospital. Miraculously when he got there his temperature was at 97.6 degrees. He had a black eye, no broken bones, swollen legs and feet with some frost bite on his feet, but the extent was unknown until he got to Kootenai and a few days had passed. Due to COVID19 his wife was not able to be with him until the last hour he was there before he was transported to Kootenai Health.
After about 5 hours in Superior Hospital, Chris was then taken by ambulance from Superior Montana to Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
While at Kootenai Health Chris spent a week in which his wife was thankfully able to be there with him. Miraculously no toes were lost due to the frost bite. Chris does have nerve damage and has little to no feeling from his ankles down. The doctors say it could be years, if ever, that he gets that feeling back.
Chris has been out of work for 3 weeks and is now allowed 2-3 hours a day of light duty to help pay his monthly expenses. Medical expenses that have been billed thus far total $40,000, $8,200 of which he is responsible for out of pocket and more to come. The $40,000 is not the end of the expenses. He has physical therapy and continued doctor appointments to check on the progression of his tissue grown and nerve damage.
For those of you who do not know Chris Spellman he is a local mechanic here in the Coeur d'Alene area and would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He is a loving father and husband. On more than one occasion he has taken my husband, myself and our children out to lunch just because. He is the kind of guy to do things for others without expecting anything in return. He is a trust worthy, hard working, honest man that has had a serious of unfortunate events happen to him during this crazy time in our world.
We would like to give a special thanks to all of the officers and Search and Rescue parties that participated in helping to make getting Chris home possible.
100% of your donations will go towards Chris's Medical Expenses to help ease the financial strain that has been placed on his family due to these unforeseen circumstances. He has been set up as a beneficiary and will be the one to receive all of the money directly from Go Fund me to pay medical bills as they come in.
Please take this as an opportunity to help ease the financial expenses of a local mechanic that has always gone above and beyond to help those he comes into contact with. We appreciate any donations made even if it is a single dollar.
Organizer and beneficiary
Emily Stokes
Organizer
Post Falls, ID
Chris Spellman
Beneficiary