Help DJ Bruce Forest and his wife Mitzi Forest

On December 27, 2018, my wife and I were on a vacation in Costa Rica. While driving up a dirt and rock mountain road, waiting for a line of cars coming down the mountain, the car suddenly lurched forward, and the entire Punta Mala road collapsed, dropping our SUV 100 feet down, bouncing off the mountain repeatedly, and landing in a shallow rock riverbed below. The drop should have been fatal, but we both survived.

We were not so lucky. We were both severely injured – Mitzi, more so. She suffered a broken neck (internal decapitation,) additional spinal breaks, and multiple long-bone and ligament damage. Additionally, she had numerous lacerations heavily bleeding on the top of her head. Miraculously, she crawled out the open passenger window and with the assistance of a young Tico (Costa Rican) crawled through the mud to a rock and sat down. She knew she had broken her neck and was holding it up with a hand, all the time crying out for someone to tell her what had happened to me. She had seen my head crushed beneath the smashed windshield, pouring blood, unconscious. She was sure I was dead. I was crushed inside, obviously seriously injured but alive. Mitzi was immediately taken by ambulance to the hospital in Cortes while I was extricated from the car. I had broken the major bones in my back, including shattering my scapula (shoulder blade,) my right shoulder was destroyed, my rotator cuff torn, my Ulnar Collateral Ligament shredded, and my right arm was broken in six places.

Mitzi went through a very complex twenty-hour surgery to stabilize her neck and back, and literally reattach her head to her spine. After three weeks, she was taken back to her home by ambulance and now, five years later is still bedridden and in need of further surgery. She has been in severe post-surgical pain since January 2019 with no relief at all. Mitzi has been on various strong pain medications for five years, which have now damaged her gastrointestinal system. She has lost over 100 pounds.

Mitizi’s surgery cost well over $400,000, plus the incredibly high costs of five years of medication, completely drained our bank accounts.

Other than having the huge lacerations on my head sewn up with over 250 sutures, I refused surgery for my severe back and arm damage, because I knew I would have to be Mitzi’s caregiver, as best I could. But the concussion from the accident has progressed and I have now had ten TIAs (Transient Ischemic Attacks,) and due to my lack of balance, I have had had seven further TBIs (Traumatic Brain Injuries) from further concussions. I am at high risk for a stroke. . I have almost no use of my right arm, and my left arm is still full of glass. I need immediate neurological care.

Some of you may know me; I was the resident DJ at NY’s Better Days from 1981 to 1989 and a producer/remixer. When the club closed, I moved to the UK where I continued my production work. I met Mitzi in January 1990, fell in love and married her in May 1991.

In the mid-90s I stopped working on music and went into network technology full-time, all self-learned. (I had been a closet geek since 1970.) As I got older, I was drawn back into music, and for the past ten years I’ve been combining my tech skills with music, hopefully new doors will open for me when I get well.

Other than our children, our family is deceased. My wife’s family is also deceased, so we have no support system in place other than our many friends and colleagues from both the music and technology worlds.

There is a long, painful road ahead, and it will require funding for multiple surgeries, and a place to live once released. My neurological problems are significant, and the costs will be equally significant. If I have ever inspired you to push ahead in music, to innovate, if you have ever enjoyed my DJing, enjoyed my productions, if I have found you an impossible-to-locate piece of music or are a fan of streaming video, I respectfully ask you for any donation you can afford to help us regain a semblance of our normal lives. We have been through so much.

Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Thank you all so very much!