Hi, my name is Bret. I am needing your help to pay for the needed test for my son who was involved in an ATV accident. I need to stay for over a week in Salt Lake City so I can be with Colton.

This is his story;

Colton Is an amazing young man with an even more amazing story. He is currently 14 years old and recovering from a traumatic brain injury that he sustained in an ATV accident 22 months ago. To illustrate just how amazing this boy is here is a little bit of his background:

When Colton turned 5 years old he lost his mother and 6-year-old sister. They burned up in a fire and unfortunately Colton was there to witness the tragedy. It was worse than anyone might. Colton wound up in the foster care system and for the next couple of years went through 5 different homes. He was an extremely difficult, ultra-high-trauma child and was considered to be almost unmanageable. He was not able to sit in class at school and was even labeled “a little wild man” by one of his teachers. He was heavily medicated for ADHD, nightmares, and various other problems too. This caused him to be extremely skinny and with little appetite. Academically he was completely dysfunctional and his uncontrollable behavior made him an “unplaceable” child for DCYF. When he was 7 he came to our home one weekend for respite care because his 5th foster placement was failing. We fell in love with him and somehow knew that he would be a perfect fit in our home. He is just three months younger than my other foster adopt son Allen who after 8 failed placements was also considered to be an “unplaceable” child. Allen was already adopted and doing amazing by the time Colton came to live with us. Being that I am a single father, this was in itself a huge undertaking but caring for two ultra-high-trauma foster/adopt children made it a challenge that many people said was impossible. With the Lord’s help, it was possible though, and now both boys have found a loving and stable forever home. The story is so much bigger than I want to write here. Colton’s adoption took over 5 years to complete due to red tape and bureaucracy. His papers were signed in October 2018 but it took until March 2023 to get it finalized. During this time Colton made the most amazing transformation though. He slowly and steadily grew into the most delightful boy anyone could hope for. He began excelling at school, even becoming an almost straight-A student! He also overcame his fire trigger and began enjoying bonfires and camping etc. He got involved with soccer, football, Scouts, Youth Group and our church, orchestra, chess club, rugby, basketball, baseball, cross country, hockey, and all kinds of other good things. He became the favorite student of many of his teachers and social workers and socially became incredibly popular with countless new friends. He became so bright, funny, happy and loving, and anyone that met him would never know that he had ever suffered a single traumatic day in his life.

Then tragedy struck again. On May 18th, 2021 Colton had a terrible ATV accident. He went off of the edge of a steep embankment and got his shoe-lace caught in the shifter. He was dragged until hitting a tree at a speed as high as 50 mph. He initially impacted the tree with his ribs and the front of his helmet. The impact broke the helmet and blew it off of his head. Almost simultaneously the ATV bounced off of a tree driving the rim into the side of his then-unprotected skull like a cookie cutter. His skull got broken and was caved in 2mm. He suffered a shattered face, fractured jaw socket, broken ribs, and air outside the lungs as well. I found him unconscious and bleeding everywhere. It was the most horrible thing I have ever seen. We raced to the hospital where doctors worked on him for an hour before putting him on a life flight to another hospital. They feared he was unlikely to survive the injuries Colton remained in the PICU in a coma and on life support for quite some time. His recovery was a miracle. He was so blessed to have thousands of people on prayer chains asking the Lord to heal and save him. Against all odds he not only recovered, but he recovered so well it’s almost impossible to tell he was ever in an accident.

Colton is currently very happy and healthy. He has even been on the honor roll this year in the 8th grade! He does have some significant brain damage though. It is a little terrifying because we do not know how this may affect him later in life. He has undergone some very cutting-edge testing at one of the best hospitals in the country for this type of brain injury. They believe he will make a full recovery but every day that passes by makes his treatment more difficult to accomplish with good odds of success. Between all of the years of court and adoption expenses have been pushed to our limit financially. We need to raise enough money to get him to the out-of-state brain specialists for his treatment. The treatment is an intensive 2-week program and they believe Colton has very good odds of making a full recovery. It would truly be a miracle to get his brain fully healed like the rest of his body has been. He is such an extraordinary child and has already overcome so much in his life. I’m going to do whatever it takes to make sure he gets the care that he needs. He deserves to have things go right for him now after enduring and overcoming so much tragedy in his life already. God bless you all for taking the time to read this. If anyone can donate to help Colton to get to see his brain doctors it will make a huge difference in his life. Thank you!