Help Wen with His Hit-and-Run Medical Bills

When we got the phone call from my son-in-law Wen Dolphin that he’d been hit by a car on his bicycle, we didn’t realize how bad it was.

He was working so hard at sounding calm that we had no idea he was seriously injured. But that’s Wen -- more worried about not freaking us out than about himself.

The car hit him from behind at 50mph, sending him over the hood and launching him off the windshield. He landed 30 feet down the shoulder. His helmet saved his life. But his shoulder, pelvis and back were broken.

The driver stopped, saw Wen lying on the side of the road crying for help, and then drove off. Wen had to call 911 himself. Thankfully he didn’t lose consciousness and could.

Wen was doing everything right that day. He wasn’t wearing earphones, so he heard the car approaching, but he didn’t hear braking or accelerating or anything else to signal danger. He had a flashing taillight and was wearing reflective material and his company’s bright-colored cycling clothes. He was riding on Old Pueblo Rd because he says that’s one of the safest ones around where we live south of Colorado Springs.

Wen was lucky that it happened in front of one of the few houses out there, and people were home. They heard him screaming and came out ot help. Their security camera got a picture of the car, so the Colorado Highway Patrol has something to work with, but the investigator says they catch few hit and run drivers. We’re all hoping they do. That driver needs to be taken off our roads and brought to justice. They need to pay Wen's medical bills before they bankrupt his family.

Their family has medical insurance through my daughter’s job as an elementary school teacher, but it’s not great -- he’s got a $2000 deductible. After that, they have to pay 20% of the hospital bills and rehab costs.

He’s gone from training to do well at a 200-mile gravel race this spring to wondering when he’s going to be able to give up the wheelchair. The doctors say he’s got a tough 2 to 6 months ahead.

I don’t think they realize how tough.

Wen’s a self-employed entrepreneur. He and a friend he met working at a local bike shop started a small company during the pandemic. They make products to help athletes and other people perform and feel better. I hear how loyal their customers are, and I see how hard he works. But like most small self-funded start-ups that are growing, things are always tight.

Now he can’t work for months.

He's also got a daughter to support and a mortgage to pay. We were so happy when he found a first-time homebuyer program and scraped together enough to buy a house just a few blocks from me and my wife. I can’t think about what it would mean for them to lose it.

Wen and I are different. I don’t ride bicycles. At the age I was enlisting in the Air Force, he was a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. But we both care about family and helping others.

He’ll stop on bike rides to help strangers with flat tires, even if it makes him late. He volunteers to help community organizations. His company shares profits with worthy causes and does fundraisers. He puts on bicycle races and donates the registration money. He goes to school board meetings and is active in his Quaker church. Once, when he saw a homeless man wander into traffic and get hit, no one wanted to help, but he jumped out of his car and did what he could to save the man’s life.

That someone would leave him lying on the side of the road begging for help, I still can't understand.

I hope making this GoFundMe page will bring him and his family some of the help they need. People have been asking, and I know our community cares.

If you’re able, please donate something to help this young family get through the next few months. Anything helps. Every kindness is appreciated.

Thank you!

-Bob

P.S. Our local Colorado Springs TV and newspapers have been covering the search for the driver. Here's one story from KRDO that has an interview with Wen.