Motorcycle Madness Recovery

Hello, my name is Garrett and some of you might be aware of the terrible motorcycle accident I was in, but for those of you who don’t, this is my story.

On June 27th of this year, my best friend and I went out for a motorcycle ride we’ve been looking forward to for a very long time.  Things were going great until I came up to a left corner. Instead of going around the corner, my motorcycle went straight into the ditch. I flew over the handlebars, which dug into the dirt, and I landed on my back. I knew as soon as I hit the ground, something was broken but I wasn’t exactly sure what broke.  

Thankfully I was wearing my helmet, but it flew off a good 40 feet from me and landed farther into the ditch. After I calmed down and realized what happened, I called my best friend and I remember screaming into the phone “I DON’T WANT TO DIE IN THE DITCH!!!!!!!”

Shortly after that, I was able to call 911 and told them exactly what happened and where, but because we were in the middle of nowhere, it took from what I was told about an hour and a half for rescue to arrive. With the pain I was in,and spitting up blood, I truly thought I was going to die in the ditch that day. 

I was airlifted to Sanford Medical Center in Fargo. I don’t remember the first two weeks I was in the hospital, but my wife said it was pretty rough because of constant surgeries and pain meds and the stress all of this brought on. While I was in the hospital, however, I was told the best news of my life. MY WIFE IS PREGNANT!!!!!!!

I bruised a few ribs, broke my pelvis in 5 spots, fractured my back which led to getting 4 discs fused together and finally, I had a huge gash/hole in my left abdomen which measured 46cm wide by 26cm high and deep. You could almost fit a basketball in my abdomen. My left leg was a step above paralyzed because all the nerves going down my left leg were severed from the abdominal trauma. 

This accident should have killed me, due to the seriousness of my injuries, but something told me it wasn’t my time. My doctor told me if I wasn’t as heavyset as I was, I would have bled out and died in the ditch, so who says cheeseburgers and pizzas never saved a life

I’m finally starting the recovery process. I’m currently in a rehab facility in Duluth and as of today, 9-24-2020 I was able to stand for the firsttime in 3 months for a minute and a half! I’m slowly starting to gain pressure feeling in my left leg, but still have zero mobility. My doctor told me the recovery process could take anywhere from a year to two years to make a full recovery. 

It has been an extremely painful and difficult road to recovery not only physically and mentally, but financially as well.

I’ve never been one to ask for financial help, because it’s my job as a husband to provide for my family and our little miracle, but I can’t. This accident has brought on a major financial struggle and stressful setback.

We are down to 1 income just scooting by staying afloat, and in a few short months, we will have no income because my beautiful wife will be on maternity leave.  I’m begging for help, absolutely anything will make a difference. Please please please share this page to get my story out there as far as you can so we can breathe a sigh of relief while we bring a bundle of joy into the world. 

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, they mean everything to us.