Donate to help Rebecca walk again!

Rebecca tore her Achilles tendon in 2020 when she was skipping with her kids. She had the tendon repaired, but, even though she was in otherwise good health without any risk factors for post-op infection, she developed a serious infection in the screws and anchors used to afffix her tendon to her heel bone. In April of 2021, she had a limb-salvaging surgery to preserve the bone and tendon that was not infected by the infection. Even though quite a bit of her heel bone and Achilles tendon were affected, she was expected to make a full recovery. To eradicate the infection, she was placed on daily IV antibiotics for 8 weeks. In July of 2021, it became evident that more surgical and IV antibiotic intervention was needed to help eradicate the infection in the bone. Rebecca had two more operations during a 6-day stay in the hospital. After the July surgeries, Rebecca was told she likely would never walk again and that she was almost certain to have a below the knee amputation. She resumed daily IV antibiotics in her implanted chest port for the next 9 weeks, as well as completed 60 hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions on the advice of her wound care physician. In January of 2022, she had white blood cell testing done which confirmed that she had indeed beaten the infection in what remained of her heel!

Rebecca and her husband Andrew decided in the hospital that they would do anything possible to keep her leg as long as it would be functional. Rebecca saw so many orthopedic and podiatric doctors in the OKC area, and none offered any hope of walking normally again outside of having the below the knee amputation done. Rebecca started researching and contacted a surgeon in Florida who was 3D printing titanium foot bones and had done several successful custom reconstructive foot surgeries with these titanium implants. Surprisingly, this doctor replied and began designing a mockup of a complete calcaneus (an implant like this has not yet been done in the United States).

Miraculously, Rebecca's mangled Achilles tendon somehow attached itself to what was left of her foot bones and gave her the ability to drive. However she has been unable to walk at all since December of 2020, two years ago, and has been using a knee scooter to get around.

An opportunity for Rebecca to walk has presented itself: Rebecca's local doctor and the doctor from Florida have designed a custom implant, which, if everything goes perfectly, should give her a chance at a semi-normal life. Although the doctors are hopeful, they are also realistic. They have said that she should be able to walk but may never have push-off capabilities and will never run or dance. Rebecca says that her goal is really just to keep her leg and be able to walk and live as normal a life as possible with her husband and her four children.

Unfortunately, Rebecca's insurance company will not pay for the custom titanium implant. Rebecca and her family have spent 2 years of their lives fighting and conquering the infection, living a "new" life with a disabled mom and wife, many doctor appointments and therapies, and have spent much of their savings doing so, about $25,000 out of pocket.

Now, in addition to the money they have spent to treat the infection as well as rehabilitation and other costs associated with it, to try to avoid an amputation and to save her leg, she will be required to pay close to $25,000 more out of pocket for the surgery which will hopefully be performed at the end of January. Then she will have many months of extensive rehabilitation as well as ongoing costs associated with the injury and surgeries.

Rebecca's immediate need is for money to fund the surgery--it will need to be paid for in January. Any additional funds will be used to offset the family's prior expenditures related to the surgeries and treatment.

**for legal reasons, the above is a general synopsis and is not intended to be a full medical account