Melora's Medical And Rehab Fund
Donation protected
On 1/19/17 Melora Kellis, mother of four, was involved in what doctors described as a ‘fatal’ car accident outside Twin Falls, ID in which none of the air bags went off. In the back seat was her three month old baby girl. Miraculously both survived. The baby was unharmed, but Melora was air lifted to Boise’s St. Alphonsus Hospital.
Melora Kellis, is and always will be that ‘someone’ people remember, whether meeting her at St Luke’s Magic Valley hospital’s neonatal ICU in Twin Falls ID where she is a beloved nurse and takes pride in giving her all to helping sick infants, or in her personal life. She is, as one friend said, “one who has always helped me remain positive and persevere over All! The one that just feels when I'm down and suprises me with that random card in the mail to make me smile .”
Her 08 Dodge Grand Caravan took the full impact of the crash on the front driver side. Melora had to be cut out of the van. A newspaper article inaccurately stated that she was not wearing a seat belt. The ER team who treated her however stated “just one look at her and you know she was wearing one.”
Amongst her many injuries - both internal and external - her chest was crushed along with both of her legs. Her ankle on one foot “looked like confetti on the xrays” said her husband Jacob McNamare, a Petty Officer Second Class in the Navy Reserve’s SeaBee’s. After undergoing her first surgery shortly after her arrival, she began to develop breathing problems and has been on a ventilator in the ICU since. Doctors say she is looking at several weeks more in the ICU with more hospital time after that before being able to return home.
Ahead for her, according to her orthopedic surgeon, will be many more surgeries, each equally complicated due to the nature of the damage to her legs. Her recovery will include 3-5 months in a wheelchair, unable to put any weight on her legs, or use of her left arm, and then several more months in rehabilitation to slowly walk again.
No one likes to admit when they are over their head and need help, but as Jacob said, “It’s not my pride I am worried about. It’s my family.” Just to get her home they need to purchase a vehicle with a wheelchair lift that will fit their family of six along with making alterations to the home itself that will allow her to move about in a wheelchair once she is able to be mobile. Though they have both auto and health insurance, this event has left severe gaps in their income that has and will leave them struggling to make ends meet for many months to come. This is especially true with Melora no longer able to work and her husband being laid off from his civilian job as a concrete ready-mix driver and assistant dispatcher for a local concrete company. He is now left trying to juggle his 4 children, a civilian and Military career, and being with Melora at the hospital over 120 miles away from home. “We have about a month of savings.” Admitted Jacob, “And then I don’t know what we will do.”
Cost estimations are currently very rough as the amount of surgeries and other factors are still being added up. Surgery alone is already going to be well past the tens of thousands.
If by any chance there are excess funds, it has been agreed, it will be donated to a charity that Melora is passionate about.
Melora Kellis, is and always will be that ‘someone’ people remember, whether meeting her at St Luke’s Magic Valley hospital’s neonatal ICU in Twin Falls ID where she is a beloved nurse and takes pride in giving her all to helping sick infants, or in her personal life. She is, as one friend said, “one who has always helped me remain positive and persevere over All! The one that just feels when I'm down and suprises me with that random card in the mail to make me smile .”
Her 08 Dodge Grand Caravan took the full impact of the crash on the front driver side. Melora had to be cut out of the van. A newspaper article inaccurately stated that she was not wearing a seat belt. The ER team who treated her however stated “just one look at her and you know she was wearing one.”
Amongst her many injuries - both internal and external - her chest was crushed along with both of her legs. Her ankle on one foot “looked like confetti on the xrays” said her husband Jacob McNamare, a Petty Officer Second Class in the Navy Reserve’s SeaBee’s. After undergoing her first surgery shortly after her arrival, she began to develop breathing problems and has been on a ventilator in the ICU since. Doctors say she is looking at several weeks more in the ICU with more hospital time after that before being able to return home.
Ahead for her, according to her orthopedic surgeon, will be many more surgeries, each equally complicated due to the nature of the damage to her legs. Her recovery will include 3-5 months in a wheelchair, unable to put any weight on her legs, or use of her left arm, and then several more months in rehabilitation to slowly walk again.
No one likes to admit when they are over their head and need help, but as Jacob said, “It’s not my pride I am worried about. It’s my family.” Just to get her home they need to purchase a vehicle with a wheelchair lift that will fit their family of six along with making alterations to the home itself that will allow her to move about in a wheelchair once she is able to be mobile. Though they have both auto and health insurance, this event has left severe gaps in their income that has and will leave them struggling to make ends meet for many months to come. This is especially true with Melora no longer able to work and her husband being laid off from his civilian job as a concrete ready-mix driver and assistant dispatcher for a local concrete company. He is now left trying to juggle his 4 children, a civilian and Military career, and being with Melora at the hospital over 120 miles away from home. “We have about a month of savings.” Admitted Jacob, “And then I don’t know what we will do.”
Cost estimations are currently very rough as the amount of surgeries and other factors are still being added up. Surgery alone is already going to be well past the tens of thousands.
If by any chance there are excess funds, it has been agreed, it will be donated to a charity that Melora is passionate about.
Organizer and beneficiary
John McNamare
Organizer
Napa, CA
Jacob McNamare
Beneficiary