Help John Recover from Devastating Injury

(First, I want to let everyone know that the last picture posted is very graphic. I just wanted to warn everyone before you start looking through them.)

Hello everyone! My name is Melissa Mitchum. I'm starting this GoFundMe to help my son-in-law, Johnathan aka John, and his wife, my daughter, Shelby, and their beautiful baby girl Kalani get through this devastating injury and life changing injury. John was involved in an accident on July 4th. The funds raised here will help cover medical bills, meds, upcoming household bills, food, and traveling to the many appointments coming up. This is a long process and a long recovery. The doctor's report of what John has to have done is down below.

Here is their story...

Friday night, July 4th, John and his wife were having their yearly family gathering at home to celebrate the 4th like many families were. What started out as a fun night full of events turned into a horrific nightmare late in the evening.

John and a few of the guys were taking turns lighting fireworks and halfway through the show, John was reloading one of the cannons and something went wrong. He lit the fuse and it didn't go off. He picked it up and lit it again and before he had a chance to set it back down, it blew up in his hand. These are the kind of fireworks that make the big boom sound and light up the sky, giving you a beautiful show. He started screaming, call 911, and after that, everyone went into panic mode. It was total chaos as you could imagine because he was bleeding a lot and no one knew what to do to help him. The EMS finally arrived and John was laid out on the ground screaming and crying out because the pain was unbearable, and then he passed out. Everyone started screaming and crying and trying to wake him up, thinking the worst of course at this point. The EMS workers jumped into action, working on him and trying to calm everyone down, saying that he was okay and that when something like this happens to someone and the adrenaline wears off, sometimes people just pass out because of the pain. The EMS workers loaded him up and rushed him to MUSC. We can't thank Dana, the EMT, enough for all that she did that night. She even called us when he was scared and we couldn't be in the back with him yet when they arrived at the hospital.

Once we were able to get in the back of the hospital to be with him, we spent most of Friday night and Saturday morning by his side. I personally have never seen anything like this before and we will all be traumatized forever because of this. Watching him cry out in pain in the arms of my daughter was heartbreaking. I have never seen this man cry in the 6 years I have known him. John is a very strong young man and I have seen him in pain before (when he hurt his back) but even then, he kept working and pushed through the pain. This was different of course, but just to see him like this was hard to watch.

It took hours for the on-call hand surgeon to come in and once he did, he had to clean the hand up again and do tests. He finally told us that he will need surgery in the morning and that he didn't think there was any blood flow going to at least one finger. They also said they were keeping him in the hospital but the next thing we knew, they were sending him home. They said they would call once they found a surgeon who could do the surgery, and that it would probably be Tuesday.

This morning they finally got a call. The surgeon said he wanted to see him this afternoon and then they would set up surgery. So they went to the doctor's appointment and they were told John was added to the list for possible surgery this coming Thursday.

As of right now, all we know is surgery is a must. He will more than likely need finger amputation due to no blood flow. He has a dislocated tendon in his wrist which he will have to have pins placed to set it back. He will have to have a skin graft. He will have months of PT and/or rehabilitation after it heals from surgery. They also said today he might never get full function of his hand back. This is all life-changing for a 22-year-old, hard-working young man. But the doctor said they won't know any more until they get him into surgery. The doctor did say he will be out of work for some time, months even. My daughter will be returning to work at some point, but right now she has to care for her husband and will be the sole caretaker of their daughter as he can't even pick her up or change a diaper.

I know people are reading this after seeing the picture of his hand and are thinking this is unbelievable!! His hand is horrific and no one is doing anything and on top of that, they won't give him anything for pain. Yes, we are all in shock too!!

But for now, all we can do is pray for him and hope that this surgery happens as soon as possible. All he can do is try to rest, but it's kinda hard when you're in this much pain and he is also stressed/worried about how bills are going to be paid, food to feed his family, and now they will have thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay, as he doesn't have health insurance. This is the reason I started this GoFundMe.

John and Shelby never ask for help, like never! They have always been hard-working young adults and worked very hard for everything they have. They were just starting the process of being able to buy a home at 22 years old and now this has happened.

John has always been someone I could call for anything and he would come running. He would literally do anything to help anyone out. Last year I had a water pipe burst in between my upstairs and downstairs and it was flooding my house and he left his job in the middle of the day and came running to help me. He came right in and started ripping out the ceiling until we got to the pipe. He then came over for days and days just to help me repair my ceilings. He has come through for me many times over the years and never asked for anything in return. My daughter is the same way. She has been helping me with jobs since she was 14 because she knows I have a bad back and health issues. They have given up so much of their personal time to help me and other family members over the years.

AND NOW Y'ALL, THEY NEED OUR HELP!!

So I'm starting this GoFundMe account with hopes that we all can come together and help take a little stress off of them. This is going to be a long process and a long recovery for John. And the medical bills are going to be coming for a while. Anything you can spare, even if it's 10, 20, whatever, it will add up and help them. If you can't help, we understand, not everyone will be able to. And if you are a child of God, please keep them in your prayers, as prayers are much needed right now! Thanks, everyone!!