Vehicle After Terrible Accident

Gary Doty is a husband, father of two, grandfather to eight, and great-grandfather to one. He is a veteran who served his country and deployed to Germany immediately after marrying his beautiful bride, Dianne Doty. For more than 30 years after, Doty worked on the grain elevators until a terrible fall 37 feet caused him to break his back in two places. Since then, Doty has been unable to work due to being a partial paraplegic. His income is low and he has been surviving on worker's comp, but he is a strong and determined provider for his family and has never asked for help.

On January 15, 2019, Doty was in a terrible car accident where he was T-boned by a large truck. It was by the grace of God that the back of his van was hit instead of the front. The van was their best-running vehicle and also essential for Doty with his physical disabilities. It carried his electric wheelchair, walker, and a wheelchair ramp. It was also tall enough for Doty to easily enter and exit without assistance, while he cannot currently use their other small vehicle. The accident also destroyed their wheelchair ramp and damaged, if not totaled (it's still under evaluation), Doty's electric wheelchair.

On top of all of the material damage, Doty was critically injured from the car accident. He was left with multiple broken ribs, a damaged left knee, internal bleeding, the need for intubation on a ventilator for a few days, and a brain bleed that caused him to enter emergency brain surgery the night of the 15th. It will likely take a few months of recovery in the hospital and in a rehabilitation facility for Doty to recover from this serious accident.

Healing for Doty is going to be long and hard, but one way to bless him and Dianne is to remove some of the financial burden that this has taken on their family. Now that they do not have a handicap-accessible vehicle, they need to sell their current car, which is valued at less than $1,000. Their current van has been totaled and they did not have collision insurance, so they will receive nothing for the cost of that vehicle. Anything given to this GoFundMe will go towards paying off their previous van that was totaled, purchasing a new handicap-accessible vehicle valued between $5,000-8,000, and helping to pay for any additional costs involved with replacing the wheelchair and ramp.

Thank you for giving to this fund. If you have parents or family that have struggled with disability and low income, particularly in retirement, you know what a financial stress emergencies like these can have. Thank you for blessing this veteran, hard worker, and family man.

(My dad, Jeff Whelchel, will be handling the car fund and helping to purchase the vehicle for his mother-in-law Dianne.)