My name is David Carnley. I'm raising funds to cover emergency medical expenses for my son, Matthew, following a serious motorcycle accident in Chiang Mai, Thailand on April 22nd.
Matt had traveled numerous times to Thailand. Several years ago Matt cofounded a nonprofit organization. The organization's work spans rescue operations targeting debt bondage, forced labor, and sex trafficking, as well as relief efforts delivering food, medical care, and aid to remote and dangerous locations most people never reach. Matt wasn't a spectator in that mission. He was on the ground, in the hard places, doing the work. He loves traveling.
Travel by motorcycle is common in that part of the world. On the morning of April 22nd, I received an email from a surgeon in Chiang Mai that Matt was involved in a very serious motorcycle accident. Despite wearing his helmet, the accident was catastrophic.
His injuries include large fractures of both legs with multiple broken bones, a severed femoral artery requiring emergency surgery using a vein graft from his other leg, a cervical spine injury, fractured skull and facial bones requiring reconstructive surgery, facial lacerations, and a ruptured left eye with loss of vision. He is currently in the trauma ICU at a teaching hospital in Chiang Mai. He is medically stable, but additional surgeries are scheduled and the road ahead is long. Whether he regains the ability to walk, or vision in his left eye, remains uncertain.
The femoral artery graft has continued to hemorrhage as he received several units of blood.
Matt has no insurance. His employer-based coverage lapsed just before the accident. The hospital has billed $12,000 for emergency care to date and requires a $4,000 payment before proceeding with the next surgery. Total costs with additional surgeries, continued ICU care, rehabilitation, and medical transport back to the United States — could reach well over $50,000.
We are doing everything we can as a family at a distance before we can visit him in person. Any contribution, large or small, moves us closer to bringing him home.