John's Path to Healing and Hope

**Update: John should get to come home Monday-Wednesday. They wanted to get him there before the weekend but his pain is understandably a lot. Once the team gets his pain under control he can go home.**

As some of you know, my brother John crashed his Harley Saturday April 5th in Redmond.

The accident was very brutal and very traumatic for not only him but those on the scene.

An ambulance, EMT’s and family happened to all be right there in traffic by Wild Ride and witnessed the crash. John was rushed in the ambulance to Bend St.Charles where they did their best to get his lower leg reassembled.

Upon arriving at the ER John went straight into surgery to try and piece his shin, ankle and foot together. The surgeons placed bars and long screws in but couldn’t close the wound due to the severity of the injury.

When he finally moved to a room the nurses noticed that the blood flow to his foot and toes was minimal. They continuously checked the feeling and color of his toes and we could tell something was wrong.

The trauma doctor came in late that night and said that they needed to take the foot. Very emotional time.

They ran a CT type scan in the early hours of Sunday (it’s all a blur) to see if there was any blood flow occurring and found a small amount. So instead of doing another surgery they held off for Monday.

Monday morning the Surgeon came in and gave John two choices.

The first being, keep the foot, doing a ton of surgeries with the outcome still being that he will never walk on his left leg again and he would be in pain for the rest of his life. (That being said he could still lose the foot.) That option also included an immeasurable amount of pain medication for at least the next year. (John just celebrated 3 years clean in January. He also just got his Oregon CRM certificate to help those still struggling with addiction)

The second option was amputation. He would then be getting a prosthetic and the pain medication becomes done after two weeks (John has already pushed to put them off faster) so all around having a higher quality of life.

John chose the second option. They amputated from mid-shin down on his left leg.

It’s been a lot. Very heavy emotional toll on him and our family.

But, he got up and walked with a walker 6 hours post op. The OT team said in 25 years she has never seen anyone get up and walk same day as surgery. Wednesday John went down four stairs and back up them. He made jokes about a push-up contest for the next day and then a 5k the day after that. He is setting records and very determined to go home to his beautiful three year old daughter.

John is in good spirits but some days are hard. He will not be able to work and therefore pay bills to support his little family. It will be a long journey of relearning how to walk and use crutches until it’s time for a prosthetic.

We are blessed by all the love and support from everyone. It means more than any of us can put into words that are worthy.

Our family was asked to create this account so that the community can help, so thank you for anything and everything you have done and continue to do.

The changes John has made in his life were already helping so many and now he refuses to let this stop him from the man he wants to be. His story will continue to help others and…He’s alive. We are all soooo very grateful for that.

Thank you again to everyone for the support