Help Matt Rebuild After Medical Debt and Car Accident

Matt’s been a good friend for 25 years since all three of us were in high school. He is a capable and hardworking man that received a Civil Engineering degree from UF and has had a successful career in that field for the last 19 years in spite of everything that has happened to him.

Nirmal, Matt, and Ivan in High School

Matt early in his career, running in a race with his dog Rusty

Matt doesn’t have the support network many of us do because his father passed away when he was young and his mother passed away when Matt was just starting his career. Nevertheless, he had bought a house in Tallahassee and was setting himself up to have a stable life when doctors discovered a tumor in his ear. Thankfully, Matt was able to make a full recovery (except for losing most of his hearing in his left ear) but the treatments, multiple surgeries, and months of being unable to work meant that Matt lost his home and was saddled with a lot of medical debt.

Nevertheless, Matt went back to work as soon as he was able and was once again starting to build a stable life for himself when a driver swerved into Matt’s lane and hit him in a head on collision. Both Matt and the other driver were going about 45mph so the relative speed was about 90mph. It is a miracle that Matt survived. For a couple of weeks we weren’t even sure if he had because we don’t live in the same town anymore and he was in an ICU without access to his cell phone. He did end up with 6 weeks in the ICU, many months in rehab and a broken pelvis that took the longest to heal.

Matt’s car right after he was extracted from it

Matt in the hospital after the accident

Once again Matt had to start from scratch with old medical debt looming over him, no family to turn to, and this time he didn’t even have a car. He’s kept his head though, and didn’t rely on anyone. He’s started working as a civil engineer again and he currently gets rides from friends or Uber to get to work. However, this is not sustainable because much of his income needs to go to debt payments and Uber rides. He also needs to start driving out to construction sites soon to complete his projects. As his longtime friends, we want to bring together the community to be his support network and help him get a reliable used car so he can work his way out of this debt.

Thank you very much for considering helping. Any amount will make a difference.