Jack’s Medical Fund

For those who don’t know me personally I’d like to give some context. I’m Jack, or maybe Jay depending on where you meet me. Before my accident happened I was living in Thailand while I studied programming and had been backpacking for the better part of three years in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Australia. This experience played a large role in shaping me into who I am and how I think.

I learned to live in the present by accepting the lack of control I have in the branches of the future and the recognition that sitting in the past does little to help progression. I believe nothing in life is good or bad, as judgment is an indefinite process. Only when the butterfly effect of the event or thing has ended can anybody really say if it had a net positive or not. I view my situation as an opportunity for growth, even though my doctors say only lizards can do that. I learned to be mindful of the significance of the opportunity I have in every moment to simply Be.

My amputation story started on November 2nd 2022 when a boulder fell off of a cliff and landed on my leg, cutting it completely off right there. I was in northern Bali, in a remote area where it took 12 hours to get to the hospital after the leg was detached.

I had a surgery that attempted to reattach the limb in Indonesia however that did not work and I was in very bad condition so I was evacuated to Thailand where it was amputated again. After three months there I had been through 12 surgeries and still needed one more to be able to get fitted for a prosthetic. I had a doctor I trusted in Thailand who was ready to do it, however I had to come back to the US at that time because of my insurance.

Kaiser Permanente, my insurance, brought me to Grady Memorial Hospital after denying my request for another doctor I trusted in Georgia. The doctor at Grady made a few mistakes during surgery and almost killed me, but alas, I lived. His mistake in that surgery will prevent me from ever getting a traditional prosthesis.

After Grady we found a new surgeon in North Carolina who was planning to do eight months of bone lengthening surgeries in order to have a long enough residual limb for a special implant. This implant is part of a procedure called Osseointegration where a metal rod is halfway screwed directly into the bone at the end of my leg and leaving the other half to attach a prosthesis. Before beginning this process we learned of an Australian implant that wouldn’t require me to go through with a bone lengthening process however it was only available in two hospitals in the US, as it is not FDA approved.

I’m currently writing this from one of those in New York at the Hospital for Special Surgery, and today we are beginning the process. I’m on the hospital bed waiting to be wheeled in for my first of four surgeries here before getting that implant.

There have been multiple trips to New York and there will be several more. This GoFundMe will be used to help pay for medical bills and supplies along with travel expenses.

Thank you so much for the support. I truly appreciate the kind words, thoughts, and prayers and I’m immensely grateful to everybody who donates or shares this fundraiser.

Thanks and cheers, Jack