My incredible son, Kanin, was injured on 3/24/24. He was riding an electric scooter without a helmet. It was ten o'clock at night on a dark street, and he hit a pothole. The impact from the crash propelled him over the handlebars; he was unable to brace for the impact, and he hit his head directly on the pavement, rolled, and struck his head multiple times. He had four different skull fractures, and that brought on a stroke to the left side of his brain. The swelling to his brain was so acute, they had to take him to emergency surgery to remove parts of his skull on both the right and left sides. Shortly after that, he was diagnosed with MRSA pneumonia. It was decided to fly him up to OHSU to try to save him. Once we got there, they discovered Kanin had developed a very bad infection in his chest cavity. We remained in Portland for three weeks and were finally able to return to the hospital in Medford. Once Kanin emerged from his coma, we were devastated to discover the stroke left him without the use of his right arm and right leg, and he was not able to speak. He remained in the hospital for two months and then one month in a rehab facility. By the time we left, Kanin was not even able to sit up in bed, couldn't walk, could not use his right arm or leg, couldn't speak, or communicate with us in any way. He had the thousand-mile stare. They had to place a feeding tube. He was not able to swallow anything without choking. The brain injury had left him totally dazed and confused. He had what's called a midline shift. It took three grown adults to help get him just so he could sit up in bed. Unknown to us, he was also growing a heterotrophic ossification in his right groin/hip joint. This caused his hip to basically freeze up with a bone growth in the middle of his thigh muscle. We were finally able to have surgery to have it removed in January of 2025. He lost an enormous amount of blood during this surgery, and we almost lost him on the table. It was an incredibly painful recovery for him. During all of this, he's been living in a hospital bed in my living room. Shortly after his hip surgery, Kanin started having grand mal seizures. The first one was so bad, they couldn't get it stopped, and we almost lost him again. We've been in and out of the hospital several times over this one. Luckily, we've had home health coming, trying to help him regain some of his mobility and helping us to try to establish some kind of communication. Finally, after 18 months, he's had some incredible leaps forward. He's gotten feeling back in his right arm and leg and just started getting small little voluntary movements. His brain fog has seemed to mostly clear. We believe he understands almost everything we say to him, but he is not able to respond. He got his voice back, but the only words he can say are "I know" or "I don't know." He will carry on an entire conversation with you, but those are the only words coming out. It's very strange. He thinks he's carrying on a full conversation with you. He doesn't fully understand that he only speaks a few words. On his own, Kanin demands help doing physical therapy six days a week and hours upon hours every day. He is so laser-focused, trying to regain function and get his life back. For those of you who don't know Kanin, he was a Wildland Firefighter. Before that, he was in the Army National Guard. That's how he put himself through college. He graduated with a double degree in Economics and Political Science. He is an incredibly intelligent human. But he is also incredibly kind and loving to his mother, his three sisters, his little brother, and his grandparents. We've been so blessed to have talented physical therapists coming to our home to help him get back what has been lost. But we're stuck now. He has "graduated" to be able to switch to outpatient physical therapy, and we start that next week.

But friends and family, the treatments he needs now are not available in the US. From the consultations we've done, along with our own research and recommendations from the neurologist, it seems our best hope for getting better and further along, the best course of treatment is to do stem cell therapy. There's a clinic in Mexico, the one Joe Rogan and professional athletes have been going to. It's CPI. Their results are so inspirational. But as you can imagine, they are incredibly expensive. Because Kanin was a first responder, we can get a 5% discount, and there is an organization that may be able to help because Kanin is an Army veteran. But that will not get us even close to the $42,000 we need. So we are asking for your help. Please. This is truly our best chance for Kanin to regain his speech and get function back in his right arm and leg. Please help us with your kind donation. Dan and I are not going to physically be able to help him in a few years, and the thought of having to place him into a facility is frankly unbearable to even think about.