Crue's Medical Expenses

Our 3-year-old courageous Crue took a tumble during the second quarter of the Super Bowl. Immediately after impact, his right arm was noticeably deformed, and he was instantly brought to the local Sanford Emergency Department in Fargo, North Dakota, where his parents Dustin and Megan and 1-year-old little brother Hayes reside.

Xray imaging revealed a severely displaced supracondylar fracture of his humorous, essentially a break just above the area where you hit your “funny bone”. (But this was far from funny!) This complicated fracture required pins to be placed in the broken bones for proper holding and healing, and Crue was admitted to the hospital to undergo urgent surgery the following day.

Monday morning during surgery is when things took a scary turn for the worse. A weak, sometimes absent pulse was noted throughout Crue’s affected right forearm and hand. An absent or weak pulse means lack of blood flow, which can cause serious, potentially life-altering consequences like loss of muscle function, loss of growth development, nerve damage, and high risk of wound complications potentially causing infection, cellular death or limb loss. This quickly became a medical emergency. The surgeon came out to speak with Dustin and Megan and had informed them Crue's arm had become white during the surgery and that they would need to re-open his wound to examine the repair. After closer examination from the orthopedic team and trauma team, they needed to consult doctors from other hospitals as to why his hand was not getting blood flow.

A few hours later, Crue was air flighted to a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota — one of few hospitals in the state that could provide a combined intensive, specialized microvascular and orthopedic surgery. HCMC fearlessly accepted the complexity and challenge that Crue’s high-risk case involved. Unfortunately, the air flight transportation needed to be by helicopter; meaning, neither Dustin nor Megan could travel with Crue. He had to venture on this journey by himself, scared, confused, and not wanting his mom or dad to leave him. Dustin and Megan traveled by car to join Crue in Minneapolis.

On Tuesday, Crue underwent a second, nearly 9 hour surgery to repair blood flow to his forearm and hand. His incredible surgical teams discovered internal damage to the right brachial artery, a main source of blood flow throughout the right arm, which led the artery to form a blood clot. When surgically removed, however, blood clots continued to form, causing a constant lack of blood flow to his forearm and hand. This required the damaged part of his artery to be removed. Then the surgeons performed an intricate transfer of part of his saphenous vein, located near his right inner groin, to be removed and grafted into the area of his damaged brachial artery. A fasciotomy was then performed throughout Crue’s forearm, a massive incision of the tissue strategically kept open to avoid likely further medical complications like compartment syndrome.

His surgical teams remained hopeful these surgical interventions were the answer. After successfully ensuring full nerve and muscle function and a strong pulse, Crue finished surgery but remained intubated and sedated for a few days in the PICU until he was again brought back to the operating room on Thursday for a forearm wound wash and incisional closure of his large fasciotomy site. Essentially, Crue had an incision from his bicep all the way down to his wrist, which the surgical team was able to close that day. Crue was taken off intubation a few hours after surgery, but later that evening, Crue developed breathing complications accompanied by high blood pressure, low oxygen levels, pain, and distress. Crue fought overnight to overcome these issues.

The week was a rollercoaster ride of emotions, but Crue courageously persevered through his surgical recovery and was discharged home a few days later following his third surgery. While he’ll have a surgical scar nearly the full length of his right arm and a 5" scar on his inner thigh, we could not be more grateful adequate blood flow was able to be restored. He is healing well so far, but time will tell if he is able to make a full recovery as he is still casted with pins keeping the fracture in place.

We kindly ask for your help and support for Crue and his family during this difficult, unforeseen medical journey. Donations, prayers, positive thoughts, or even simply sharing his story will all make an impactful difference. All money raised will be directly applied to medical bills, including but not limited to: emergency department fees, air flight, three surgeries (including 4 specialty surgeons), and a 1 week hospital stay including 5 days in the PICU.

Lastly, we cannot express our sincerest gratitude to the teams that went above and beyond for our courageous Crue. A special thanks to Sanford Hospital Dr. Waseemuddin; the Sanford Airmed flight team; and the entire HCMC team of Dr. Wu, Dr. Downes, Dr. Brown, Dr. Hansen, the incredible PICU nurses: Kelly, Shiela, Cassidy, and Myranda, music therapists, social worker Sarah, and all the angels in-front and behind the scenes that truly treated our Crue as if he was their own. And of course—who could forget Crue’s favorite stuffed animal Hedgie who was warmly included throughout by his care teams. :)