This fundraiser is to help pay for our son’s recovery from a serious brain injury that has left him in an unconscious state for several weeks since the accident.  There are very few facilities that provide care for this severity of brain injury.  Getting him the best treatment possible right away will give him the best chances of a full recovery.  

On July 3rd, our son Eytan was driving home from the dog park when he lost control of his car and crashed into a tree. He was partially ejected through the front windshield, suffering severe trauma to his head as well as fractures to his neck, clavicle, and ten ribs. He was taken to Jackson South Medical Center in Miami. The trauma team there did not expect him to make it through the night, but they managed to save his life. And even though his neck was broken, there was no damage to his spinal cord. Unfortunately, the injury to his brain was significant. He sustained a subdural hematoma and a midline shift, meaning that his brain slammed into the side of his skull, causing swelling, bleeding, and pressure on the side of the impact. This is generally referred to as Traumatic Brain Injury.  The surgeons removed a piece of his skull and installed a shunt to relieve the pressure and drain excess fluid. He was non-responsive and breathing through a ventilator.

 

 

 

The name Eytan is a Hebrew name meaning “strength”, and Eytan is very strong. Physically, and mentally. At 47 years old, he's in better physical shape than most people half his age. He loved to spend evenings riding his bike through Shark Valley in the Everglades. He was meticulous about his diet and his workouts. And he is just as meticulous about staying mentally active. Not long before the accident, he shared how excited he was about his curriculum at school...he was getting close to finishing a degree in acupuncture, and he was fascinated by the nervous system, how the brain processed visual input and formed new pathways.

 

That strength, together with the excellent care he received in the ICU at Jackson South, is what has carried him through this so far. He survived the worst of it, was taken off the ventilator, and had the shunt removed. He acquired pneumonia in the ICU, and he beat that too. Physically, he is healing. The bones will heal. The lungs will heal. But the recovery from his brain injury will be slow and very uncertain. He has been unconscious since the accident. He is showing small signs of responsiveness...he will open his eyes and appears to track movement, and he can sometimes open his mouth and wiggle his toes on command. He smiles and frowns. Small signs of progress.

 

After 23 days in the ICU, Eytan was moved to a standard hospital room, but he needs to go to a rehabilitation facility where they can provide the treatment, stimulation, and supportive care to help his body and his brain to heal and regain as much function as possible. There are very few facilities with the kind of specialized care for someone in his condition, what they call a "disorder of consciousness". These specialized programs provide several hours of treatment every day to stimulate brain activity, together with physical therapy to regain muscle function. The closest facility with that kind of program is in Jacksonville (Brooks rehabilitation), and the best one anywhere nearby is in Atlanta (Shepard Center).  These centers offer great services, but they are expensive.  So are the ancillary and logistical expenses associated with this. We have arranged for Florida Blue medical insurance for Eytan and that will cover a substantial part of the costs.  However, there will be co-pays and deductibles and any service that is out of network is generally not covered. Ancillary and logistical expenses are generally not covered either.    

 

What he will need:

• Continued medical care in Jackson South until he is accepted in a good rehab program and is physically and mentally able to make the trip there.
• Medical transport to the rehabilitation facility (air ambulance)
• 4-6 weeks of specialized rehab for disorders of consciousness (inpatient rehab)
• Depending on his progress, possibly another 4 to 8 weeks of inpatient rehab for traumatic brain injury
• Outpatient rehabilitation services to continue his physical and cognitive recovery
• Assistive devices for our house and our vehicle depending on the extent of any permanent disability
• Additional surgery to implant the piece of his skull that had to be removed back into his head.

 

Eytan was unemployed at the time of the accident. He has never had a lot of money. He was living in a camper with his two dogs on our property in Miami, and whatever money he had he probably spent on his dogs and on school. He didn't have health insurance. After the accident, we were able to get him some coverage, but there will undoubtedly be a lot of uncovered expenses. Insurance only goes so far, and some professional services and equipment may not be covered.

 

 

 We have done our best to research the costs of this, but it is very difficult to get a credible estimate of how much out-of-pocket expense we can expect.  The only things that we are certain about are that this is going to be quite expensive and that we must get him into a specialized rehab program  ASAP or his chances of recovering full function will be slim. The longer he stays in a semi-vegetative state, the lower his chances are of a full recovery. The longer he stays unconscious in a hospital bed, the more his body degrades and the more likely he is to experience complications or acquired infections that can threaten his life.         

We will do everything that we can to pay the expenses not covered by the insurance, but we are not wealthy and are certain to come up short.  This is why we are reaching out to our friends and community for help.       

 

Since he was admitted to the hospital, we have visited him every morning and every night until they stopped allowing visitors due to COVID. We saw the progress he was making, the way that he was fighting…we saw his strength. He kicks his left leg out sometimes, like he’s trying to get out of his hospital bed and run away. He seems to know when there’s someone in the room with him, and he’ll make this big effort to open his eyes wide, and an even bigger effort to look in your direction. Occasionally he seems to smile at something you said. You can see how much work it takes for him to do any of this, even if it’s not fully conscious. You can see that even when his eyes are closed, he’s fighting to heal and to wake up.

 

 

Please contribute what you can, share this fundraiser with your social networks, and keep Eytan in your thoughts. And if you want to send photos, videos, voice messages, flowers, or anything like that, please let us know and we will figure out how to get that to him. He might not be able to respond, but all of that stimulation is good for his recovery. He needs to know that he's not alone, he needs to see things he recognizes when he opens his eyes, and to hear familiar voices. He’s strong, but right now he needs all the help and support he can get.

 

 

 

 

Like many people, Eytan has had a hard time finding his path in life. Like many people, especially recently, he has been through a lot of hardship. Through it all he has maintained a sense of selflessness and love for others. He volunteered at a local shelter to help feed the homeless, even as he himself was unemployed. He took in stray dogs and loved every one of them with his whole being. He spent his free time outdoors, taking photos or videos of sunsets over the water. He is an incredibly intelligent, sensitive, and real human being. And what we do for him now will make all the difference in how he comes back from this.

 

All funding raised here will go to an account set up exclusively for Eytan's treatment and related expenses. We will try to post updates when there is news to share, and we will also post links and information about his condition and treatment options.

 

 

 

Thank you.