Help Lindsay Get a Service Dog

Hi! I'm Lindsay and I have a traumatic brain injury. I’m looking for your help funding for a service dog so that I can get back to life and regain my independence.

For those who don’t know, I was in a bus crash in April 2021 where I sustained a traumatic brain injury. I’m a musician and I was traveling for my dream gig across the country in LA where I’d been invited to perform with my favorite artist, Charlotte Martin.

Suddenly the shuttle I was on was t-boned by a large GMC truck. I was thrown into the luggage rack and hit my head and several other parts of my body. The crash was traumatic and unexpected. The doctors told me that I had a concussion and I’d be okay after some rest.

But several weeks passed, and I still wasn’t feeling better.

I tried to hide it and push through. I was told that concussions were brain injuries and that I would just need time to rest and heal.

I’d seen football players jump back into play after hitting their head. I thought, that’s what you do right? You just keep going?

So I pulled from the depths of my energy bank.

And I got sicker.

And sicker.

Until my husband was carrying me to bed because I couldn’t walk. And my neurological issues began to affect major organs in my body.

I was sick sick. Unsustainably sick. And the life that I had lived before was cracking.

A lot of things fell apart after here.

I was let go from a job that I loved because of my inability to keep up. There was the painful reality that I couldn’t really do my chosen career in healthcare anymore.

I couldn’t drive, so I sold my car to pay for medical expenses.

Sometimes my neurological signals misfired and I would lose the ability to move parts of my body or perceive signals from my eyes and ears.

I completely relied on assistance from my husband, Schafer, as my full time caregiver.

It’s now 2.5 years later and although I’ve learned incredible coping skills to get through the day, my life is changed.

My goal now is radical acceptance: to accept where I am and create a life where I thrive, despite my disability. At its core, it’s the same methodology that I learned from business: that success comes from capitalizing your strengths and collaborating with others to fill in your weaknesses.

One tool that I’ve learned will help me fill in my weaknesses is an ADA approved service dog.

Having a service dog allow me to be able to function independently despite my debilitating neurological symptoms.

With the help of a service dog and my clinical team, I feel confident I can experience a full life with a disability and even return to things I love: like performing.

But because of the cost of training, I am asking for your help.

This Go-Fund-Me supplies funds to the nonprofit Paws For Life, where I will be getting my service dog, Cricket. The cost is $20,000 to adopt and train an ADA approved TBI trained service animal.

You can also send funds through Venmo to directly support me and my family with any extra expenses that we have at this time: @L-Heb

We are so grateful for any donation or shares of this page. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping fund this cause so that we can embark on this new chapter in life.

Love, Lindsay and Schafer