Help a single dad who broke his back in accident!!

Hello! My name is Heather Adams and one of my oldest friends was in an awful car accident and broke his back! He’s such a wonderful single dad to his little girl and I hate seeing him fear about taking care of her. I’m gonna let him tell the story because i’m sure he can do it best.

So to start this out I just wanted to say always wear a seatbelt. I could be dead instead of a broken back with out it. Here’s my story.

I got called into work later in the evening on 6/3. I was already laying down but went in anyway. I left for home about 12am and ended up crashing into a white truck. The accident totaled my jeep, airbags deployed and it knocked me unconscious. I don’t remember anything after leaving my work until I woke up in the hospital. But from the police report they took off my seatbelt and I tried to stand up and fell in pain. They then got me in the ambulance and took me to Akron general. I have since got in touch with the owner of the car I hit and found that he was the one that called the ambulance and by pure luck there was already a police cruiser across the street that he flagged down.at the hospital I found out that I had fractured 3 vertebrae in my back. T2,T3, & T4 and ripped some of the ligaments surrounding the spine. They ended up doing emergency surgery to fuse my spine from vertebrae T1-T5 and repaired the ripped ligaments. I spent a little over a week in the hospital learning to roll on my side first, then sitting up from that position and then finally learning how to walk again with my back repaired. It was extremely painful but eventually I did get on my feet by myself. They then released me on 6/12. They gave me the choice of either going to a rehabilitation facility ( which was really a nursing home and not a good one either because of state insurance)for the next few weeks until I can start to take care of my self again or go home and have family help me. Which includes helping me wash myself, helping with my meals, washing my clothes, helping me change l, etc. I have regained a lot of strength since my surgery and can walk and sit up albeit not for long periods of time and not without significant pain. I also have to wear a neck and back brace for the next 6-8 weeks and cannot do physical work while I heal from my surgery. The original estimate was 8-12 weeks but it’s been 2 weeks already since my surgery. So now that my car is totaled, I can’t make deliveries and I can’t do Lyft anymore which means I have zero income coming in except for food stamps. I can’t do disability because I have to be disabled for at least a year to qualify and state insurance doesn’t have short term disability. Thankfully I did have full coverage and gap insurance but that doesn’t help me get a new car. I’m a single dad that needs to provide for the person I care for the most in this world. I don’t want Carli to have to struggle or see the struggle of me dealing with trying to come up with rent, keep the internet on, and the big one of finding another car. My daughter is my life and I was so happy to have a car, that I just financed in march, so that I can finally take Carli to school again, take her to her band performances and basketball practice and games when school starts back up. Or just to take her on a daddy daughter date which we were suppose to do the week of my accident. I’m hoping I can get into some sort of car by the time school starts back up again so she doesn’t miss out on anything.Not to mention by the time it will be time for school clothes and everything that comes with it. Carli’s mother and her side of the family, my side of the family and Carlis friends have helped with looking after Carli when I was in the hospital. But now that I’m home Im trying to navigate the waters and figure out how to get us back on our feet. I really didn’t want to do this gofund me, but a friend and family member, Heather Adams convinced me that I needed help and decided to make this for me. She just asked that I tell my story of what happened so here it is. I know a lot of people are struggling out there and I hate asking for help, but just know I will pay it forward whenever I can and it will be helping me raise my daughter without her having to go through the struggle that comes with this crisis at this point I. Our lives. I appreciate your time for reading this and anything helps. Thank you “

- Travis Corathers