On the evening of Friday, January 2nd, my wife, Julie Beth, was attacked by a neighbor's dog (a large pit bull or mix) while taking a walk around our neighborhood. While the animal did knock her down multiple times, I was able to pull the dog loose before fatal harm was done. Following interventions by EMS, she was transported to UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh where she underwent emergency surgery for multiple large lacerations and extensive tissue damage to her left knee. She also ended up with several wounds and contusions across her body that were more easily patched up.
At this time, JB is back home and partially mobile, but we will need weeks for her leg to heal enough for physical therapy and additional months to completely recover. During that time, we will also require follow-up visits to an outpatient doctor in order to continue her rabies treatment, as well as regular check-ups to gauge healing. Her medical needs will be, simply, on-going for some time.
JB's recovery is further complicated by lacking health insurance. As such, all of her medical costs are being paid from our dwindling savings--we are currently working on acquiring COBRA coverage, but the monthly cost of the program is substantial--until such a time that we are able to recoup expenses from the attacking dog's owner (3 Pa. Stat. § 459-502(b)(1) - https://codes.findlaw.com/pa/title-3-ps-agriculture/pa-st-sect-3-459-502/). Though we expect these expenses will be repaid at some point, that event may be months or years out. Yet another complication is I currently have functionally no PTO to dip into and FMLA does not cover wages, further reducing our available funds.
Your donations will go towards:
- COBRA premiums once coverage is secured
- Medical bills (including hospital stay, surgical procedures, and follow-up provider visits)
- In-home and outpatient physical therapy and rehabilitation
- Legal costs associated with dog bite case
- Lost wages while JB is unable to work and/or when I must take extended unpaid time off to care for her
- Unanticipated expenses associated with her recovery
I am beyond grateful that JB is alive and stable and that we have friends and family willing to support her and be by her side during this trying time. Recovery will be difficult, but we will remain steady and optimistic.
JB is an amazing daughter, sister, aunt, wife, and friend. She's an animal lover who is happy that she has three loving cats to keep her company while she heals. She enjoys nature walks (recent unfortunate incident notwithstanding) and birdwatching. She unironically enjoys Netflix rom-coms and will likely catch-up on her backlog while stuck in the house. Finally, she's incredibly brave, surprisingly tough, and utterly unwilling to let this incident keep her down.
We appreciate any support you can provide, either monetarily or emotionally.
Thank you for helping support JB as she marches toward recovery.
With deepest thanks,
Joshua Parish
(JB's husband)