Last week, Sunday, June 8th, our lives were turned upside down. Brandon has been a mechanic at the Harley Davidson dealership in Gladstone for 5 years, and unfortunately, what I’ve always feared might happen, actually happened. He was on a test ride for a customer's bike, and a driver pulled out of the Safeway parking lot near the dealership and hit Brandon straight on, causing Brandon to flip off the bike, over the hood of the car, and onto the 100-degree asphalt.

As he looked down at his legs, he could see his bone sticking out of his right shin and dangling backward from the knee as he got burned by the hot asphalt. Brandon was rushed to OHSU, where he had emergency surgery to stabilize his leg, and after learning it was a possibility he might lose his leg, he had another 12-hour surgery one day later on Tuesday, June 10th. The amazing doctors at OHSU were able to save his leg by taking a muscle and skin graft from his left upper thigh and grafting it to his calf, where he lost the bone, muscle, and skin in the accident. They also replaced part of his bone with a metal rod. His fibula is still broken, but we have to take things one step at a time.

We are still not out of the woods as far as Brandon keeping his leg, but the healing process has begun, and he is in the best care with the wonderful orthopedic and plastic surgeons at OHSU. He hasn’t been outside in over a week and has had to keep his leg in a medical “ramp” elevated for the last 6 days, all the while stressing about how we are going to manage to keep our roof over our heads and pay bills for the next 3-5 months while he is healing and out of work, so I decided to make this GoFundMe.

He will eventually get workers' compensation as this happened on the job, but we are told it could be a while until he sees any of his pay, and I will have to step up as Brandon’s caretaker for at least the next 2 months. I understand times are tough for everyone right now; I sure do know it myself, but I know these things work wonders when the community comes together. Just know we appreciate every single dollar spared, and we love you. I will keep things updated here daily as it’s one day at a time, and it will be a very long road to recovery.