Jason Coleman’s Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation

Hello to everyone reading this letter. I hope that today you take a moment to spend time with the person in your life that you love so deeply; to hug them and hold their hand. That person for me is my husband of 22 years, Jason Coleman. As I type this letter to you, I sit in his room in the Neurotrauma ICU looking at him fighting to recover. Here is his story... On Thursday, June 15, Jason went to Bentonville, Arkansas to join a friend for a mountain biking trip. I had spoken with him earlier that day, he did a dual slalom race and almost won 2 out of 3 races, finishing in second place. He was having a great time doing what he has always done, riding his mountain bike with heart and soul. That was the last time I spoke with him. At 1:40 am my daughter and I were woken up by our doorbell ringing and someone banging on the door. I opened it to see two Jefferson County Sheriff's Department officers standing in front of me. They asked me to step outside as they informed me that Jason had been in a serious accident. Jason had been riding a bicycle back to his friend's house at night on a greenway he was unfamiliar with. Jason’s bicycle went off into a ditch along the side of the greenway. He was being careful and was headed home. This was a simple act turned wrong. Jason was immediately transported to a hospital in Bentonville, Arkansas. He was unconscious and unable to feel anything from his neck down. The hospital then air-lifted Jason to Cox Memorial South Hospital in Springfield, MO due to the severity of his injuries. Once he arrived at Cox South, he was admitted into the Neurotrauma ICU where MRIs were done to show where he had broken his neck. At this point, they were able to determine the injuries sustained were higher up in his cervical spine than initially expected. He was then sent into neurosurgery to have a disk removed and a metal plate put in to stabilize his neck. After the surgery was over, the neurosurgeon pulled me in a room to give me the diagnosis. Jason has a serious spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down. He has severe damage to his spinal cord which is preventing messages from his brain from being sent to the rest of his body. My husband cannot breathe on his own, can't move, and can't feel his body. He has a breathing tube to keep his lungs working due to the paralysis. This man was one of the strongest men I have ever known, always taking care of himself physically and emotionally, as well as his daughter and myself. Yet, today looking at him, he can not even clear his throat to breathe with the tube inserted into him. He can't even talk to us. Sunday, June 19th Jason started to realize what was happening as the reality of it all started to hit. Jason is completely paralyzed but his mind is fully functioning. He can cognitively understand and evaluate the magnitude of this simple accident that happened on his bike. An activity he has spent his entire life doing. The anxiety started to kick in about the effect on his family, the future we have worked so hard to build, being Quadriplegic, and needing medical care for the rest of his life. In October of 2023, Jason lost his job at Penny Mac due to downsizing in the mortgage industry. He has no job or unemployment to help our family cover the costs of this new journey in life. He has no long-term benefits or money coming in to cover bills, medical costs', and future medical needs. His rehabilitation will have to be in another state to the extreme nature of his injuries. Please help Jason by sharing this Go Fund Me page with anyone and everyone willing to help him on this journey. Jason and I are asking to help raise $ 500, OOO to help cover medical needs both now and in the future. These funds will be put entirely towards years of recovery, surgeries, therapy, procedures, and rehabilitation these injuries require. I will never give up on him and he will fight as hard as he can, but we need as many people as possible to help us through this tragedy. Thank you, Stephanie Coleman