Love Offering for Nolan & the Dietzel Family

Thank you to everyone who has been asking how they can help the Dietzel Family. Although Nolan has a long road to recovery ahead and many medical expenses, we are praising God for the miracle that he is alive!! We are collecting a love offering to help them however we can. Thanks again to their amazing community of friends & family for your support!

~ Nick & Kiersten Lavallee

 

Rob's words of what happened:

 

"What started out to be another fun vacation day in Tennessee ended up in tragedy. Cari and I were on a boat tour with some friends while our boys were on a hike at Fall Creek Falls National Park with a group of teenage friends. One of our friend’s son called in a voice of panic saying “Dad, let me talk to Rob.” Then the line went dead.

 

For the next 45 min due to lack of cell phone signal we could not get ahold of anyone and were left wondering, fighting thoughts of the worst case scenario.

 

Finally I got a call from Jayden, using an EMT’s phone, that Nolan was in an accident. The boys had decided it would be fun to jump off an 86ft cliff into the water. What were they thinking??!! Obviously they weren’t! Brennan made the first jump successfully then Nolan jumped. He landed at a slight angle on his back and his legs went numb as he experienced a tremendous amount of pain. Thankfully he was able to make it to the surface and yelled for helped.

 

Praise God there was a youth group nearby and they heard him. Plus our friend’s son was at the top of the cliff waving a red first aide kit signaling that Nolan needed help. Immediately three kids from the youth group dove into the water and pulled Nolan out before he drowned. It took over two hours with an army of volunteers under the guidance of EMTs to get Nolan out of the canyon.

 

Here is the news article:

https://newschannel9.com/news/local/minor-injured-after-diving-over-80-feet-at-fall-creek-falls-in-bledsoe-county-thursday?fbclid=IwAR160pzf-jNFrx1DOnAMz-w6NT-mKwTE8fW_IcVukdQijAcge6Al9d70qJM

 

Nolan was taken to a nearby hospital not much bigger than your local veterinarian office where they took X-rays showing multiple vertebrae were over 40% compressed. He was then transported to the main trauma center in Chattanooga. Here they determined that he had broken his back in three locations but the debris from the breaks went forward instead of backwards thus saving his spinal chord from any damage. Praise God!! Prayers were answered in an amazing way. The vertebrae compressions had improved enough from the first set of X-rays that surgery was not required! In fact, they suited Nolan up with a special back brace and released him around midnight.

 

We are beyond thankful for this news. He is not out of the woods yet as he is in pain, can barely move, will need to wear this brace for several weeks, and will have many follow up doctor visits…but he is alive and not paralyzed. We have so much to be thankful for.

Please continue to pray for his healing & recovery."