Cory Goral

Here's the incident from my (Audrey his twin sister) perspective with all the gory details: Cory had a freak accident on Sunday afternoon June 9th on the Colorado River near Blythe, CA. He dove off of a dock into the river, which we had been doing all weekend and I did no more than 30 minutes before the incident. But this time things went wrong and he hit the bottom of the riverbed with his head, crushing all vertebra in his neck. Someone noticed he wasn't coming up and saw blood in the water. Three to five people ran into the water to find him. I saw an adult pull him out limp in their arms. I had no idea it was Cory that they were yelling about.  We all jumped in to help and instantly called 911 and our mother, who was in Fresno at the time.  Myself and a few cousins with medical training assessed Cory checking his vitals. He had a couple large lesions on his head and blood dripping down his face. He kept telling us "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry" while waiting for the paramedics. He even told us he heard his head hit the bottom, realized he couldn't move and just thought "hold your breath, hold your breath". I was told the first thing he said when being pulled out of the water was "thank you", because that is Cory....always the nicest guy. The paramedics arrived within 15-30 minutes, loaded him up and drove down the road to meet the airlift. A friend drove me to meet Cory at the hospital 1.5 hours later. He was airlifted to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. He was awake and coherent through the entire event until agreeing to being intubated to help him breathe. Luckily, I made it to the hospital just before they intubated him to quickly speak with him.

About 25 hrs after the accident, he was taken in for surgery. He fractured every cervical vertebra, severed the two posterior arteries feeding blood to his brain, and his spinal cord suffered damage near C3 and C4. His surgery on the afternoon of June 10th went well. He is mentally there, coherent and communicating with us through blinking, frowning and smiling. His neck was fused from the base of his skull down to T1,  which is his entire neck. He cannot feel anything below his chest. He has little bicep movement with some sensation. There is a high chance due to the severity of the damage to the spinal cord near C3 and C4, that he will need a trach to help him breathe in the future.  At this time he is still on vent.  He's got a long road for recovery ahead but I know his positive outlook on life will help him push though anything, not to mention the giant support system of friends and family that he has.

This has been a whirlwind and expenses have already started with him being in Palm Springs and not near home.  We are working on the next phase which will be moving to a Spinal Care Center to work with him.  Although he has insurance this is a long road ahead and we appreciate any help and support anyone can give.

Thank you,
Audrey and Family