Help Support Josh in paying his Medical & Living Expenses

On Friday August 16th, my son Joshua was riding his electric scooter home from work, and was involved in a severe accident with a car. He was transported to Froedtert Hospital, in Wauwatosa, where they worked on him in the Emergency/Trauma department. He suffered multiple fractures, breaking both Tibias and Fibulas. His Fibula bones were broken in multiple places and would require surgery. He also injured his left shoulder, both elbows, and his upper left arm.

He will not be able to work until he is medically cleared, and that is probably not going to be for 12 weeks or more. He's looking at 6 months to a year for a full recovery. He will need to re-learn to walk among other things. He did not have health insurance at the time of the accident, and the hospital bills he has accumulated thus far are pretty astronomical. He will not qualify for insurance until September 1st if he is approved. He is also worried about paying his rent, utilities and other living expenses. We are hoping we can raise enough money to help him with as much as possible. Please consider donating and sharing Josh's GoFundMe with others. The rest of the story is continued below.

We learned that they would need to try to pop the bones back into their "proper anatomical alignment", and splint/cast them until he could have surgery. This involved putting him under, while multiple doctors worked to hold bones in place and move others. After the procedure, the right splint wasn't setting to the doctors satisfaction, and they were afraid he would have some shifting of bones. They decided to put him back under and reset the right leg. He then spent the rest of the night in the ER/Trauma department. The next day he was moved to the OCU (Observation Care Unit) where he remained overnight. They said he would need 1-2 weeks for the swelling to go down before they could do surgery. He complained of pain behind his left pinky toe, where part of his splint was digging in. The same day, an ortho doc came and tried to cut part of the splint down to relieve the pain.

On Sunday, Josh was moved to the Rehab floor and the original Ortho Surgeon came in to see him. He noted that a piece of the splint was still digging into the back of his left pinky toe, so the doctor cut more of the splint off and placed some softer material behind his toe. She also showed us the damage via X-Rays. She thought it would be best to have the surgery while he was still inpatient since he wont be able to bear any weight for some time AFTER that is done. She said she'd be back in the morning to check the swelling and showed him how to elevate his legs to try to reduce the swelling. She wasn't hopeful about Monday.

Monday, Dr. Anna McGee (our favorite!) came to see Josh bring and early, and cleared him for surgery if there was an opening in the OR. Sure enough, they were able to get him in! The surgery was scheduled for 2 hours, but they thought it would be "a little longer than that". After 5 1/2 long hours of waiting, we got word that he was headed to recovery.

Josh has 24 screws and 6 plates between the two legs. They also had to perform a tightrope procedure to hold the bones together in his right leg. That night was brutal. He yelled in pain, and cried for two hours, before the meds made him comfortable enough to sleep. It was hard to witness. Thankfully his grandma was there with us also, so one of us could be with him at all times.

Josh started OT and PT right away the next day, and really powered through some tough pain. I'm incredibly impressed with his perseverance and ability to power through the pain in order to get ready to come home.

He was released one week after surgery, and is doing his rehab at my mom's house where either she or my step-dad can be with him all the time. He will not be able to bear any weight on his legs for at least 6 weeks. After the doctor clears him, he'll start PT and OT on an outpatient basis. In the meantime, he is doing the exercises his OT and PT at the hospital sent him home with.

He'll be in the splints until September 5th, and then it sounds like they will remove his stitches and them put him in a cast for the remaining 4 weeks. They he will have to wear an orthopedic boot on both legs. Josh will need to re-learn how to walk, among other things.

He has a long road ahead, but with the support of his family and friends, we know he will heal nicely and get back to his life.

Thanks to everyone who has visited, sent well wishes, and helped him and our family in so many ways while we wade through this.

Funds will be used to pay his living expenses and, medical expenses.