Help Karah Heal and Regain Her Independence

Hey everyone!

My name’s Karah! I’m a veteran of the US Air Force. I served almost 8 years before being medically retired in 2018 when a surgery caused a neurological disorder that left me with progressive paralysis and requiring the use of a wheelchair permanently.

Since then, nothing has been able to slow me down… well, that is until 2 weeks ago…

2 weeks ago (March 1, 2025), my husband, Gage, and I were returning to our vehicle after dinner and meeting with a local club about an upcoming local event they are hosting to benefit charity. The town is older, with steep hills, a lot of history, and what used to be my favorite part… the main sidewalk downtown is a boardwalk.

Unfortunately, not all of the boards were fully secured and maintained. One of them was sticking up just enough to catch the front part of my chair and footplate as I was going down the hill.

My chair was thrown sideways, while I was thrown, full speed, into the corner of a local business's building directly into my left collarbone… breaking it literally in half.

I have surgery scheduled for this Thursday, March 13th to have the bones reset and plated back together.

Normally, this wouldn’t be such a big deal… but I’m a full-time wheelchair user, who was completely independent.

Now, I have no independence. I can’t transfer on my own at all. Not even to get in/out of bed or in/out of my chair to go to the bathroom. Even just pushing the chair with only one working arm isn’t safe or feasible, as I’ve already found out the hard way, lol.

That being said, my husband, Gage, has been told by my doctors that he needs to stay home and care for me while I gain back the use of my arm after surgery to make sure no other complications arise. Neither one of us has family in the area because we moved here to the Reno area a year ago for a job opportunity Gage received. He’s currently the lead mechanic/crew chief for a small, local race team, a week away from the start of their season.

Recovery time could be anywhere from 2-3 months ( if everything goes well ) that Gage will have to be home with me, not able to work and bring home a paycheck. Luckily, FMLA will make sure he has his job to go back to when it’s time.

I create content normally for companies and racers, but I have already had to cancel 3 jobs and will have to likely cancel more because I can’t drive/film things or risk falling while the bone still isn’t set or healed.

Funds raised will go to keeping the bills paid at home and foods on the table while we are down a couple income sources.

If we reach our goal, I’d like to hire someone to come in and help me at home during the day so that Gage can go back to working and we can get back to whatever our new normal is, faster.

We’re asking for help to make this extremely tough time we are starting our second year of marriage with, a little less difficult to manage!