Richard Southwell's Medical Rehab

We are raising money to cover the cost of Rehabilitation & medical needs for my son that are beyond what insurance will cover. This is our story. My son Richard Southwell just turned 29 years old. He is my only child, my best friend & my reason for everything I have ever done in this life. He is the most loving, caring & giving person you will ever meet with a heart of loyalty that is rare. He is level headed, responsible and so smart. If anyone deserves a second chance at life and a future it is him. He was my miracle because I wasn't suppose to be able to have children and I begged God to allow me just once to be able to be a mother, and God gave me my miracle. Now I am begging God to allow my son to be a miracle again and have the best quality of life possible after this horrible motorcycle accident that changed our lives in an instant when someone turned in front of him. This is our story of the tragic event that changed our lives forever on November 21, 2017 and why we are asking for help for our son's rehabilitation & therapy cost that are beyond what insurance will cover. If you are able to help him with a financial gift to help him have the best future possible, our family would be forever grateful. On November 21st, 2017 my worst nightmare Happened! My son Richard came to do his laundry and we were joking, laughing and making final Thanksgiving dinner choices to prepare because in just two days was our little family feast & Thanksgiving dinner.  My son decided since it was a sunny beautiful fall day that while his laundry was washing he would get his motorcycle out of the garage and just take it to get premium gas put in it so that he could store it away for the winter. One last short ride for the season. He had to go to work so he wasn't going to be gone long.  He grabbed his helmet and as he was heading out the door he said "I love you mom, I'll be right back". About an hour later the phone rang and it was 911 calling. My worst fear as a mother had happed. My only child, my best friend, my amazing son had been in a motorcycle accident. I felt my heart pounding inside my chest, the room started to spin and I was trying to get information in between screaming for my boy.  "Ma'am Ma'am your son has been air lifted by helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center to the trauma center two hours away." "Ma'am he is alive, but it is very serious.  He had to be intibated by the Life flight helicopter team". I dropped the phone and fell to my knees screaming to God and calling my son's name. I had to get to him. I ran out of the house screaming trying to figure out how to get to him. My significant other had went to town and had the vehicle. I was going to drive my son's truck when Tom my significant other pulled in.  I ran toward his car screaming. Tom already knew because he had come up upon the scene as it was not far from our home & he saw my son's motorcycle smashed into a pick up truck that had turned in front of him. "Please take me to my son!" "Oh my God, my son!" We drove right up to the scene after my son had been air flighted by medivac helicopter to the University of Tennessee Trauma Center. I ran to the scene and saw where my son had hit the the hood and windshield with his body. I laid my hands upon that truck and began to beg God for mercy and protection for my precious boy. "Please get me to my son". After a two hour drive we arrived. Upon arrival my son was in Trauma Critical Care. They had drilled a hole in his skull and inserted something called a bolt to measure the brain pressure in my son head. He was so broken. A severe traumatic brain injury with brain bleed, two broken legs, a broken arm & wrist, 7 broken ribs, a bruised kidney, a lacerated spleen and a lacerated liver.  The impact was also hard to his chest that his lungs were swelling and he was going into respiratory distress syndrome. The doctor's did not expect him to live for 48 hours so I signed the hardest consent ever which was to take him to surgery and remove the left side of his skull so that the brain could swell without killing him and they would staple the scalp back over the left side and he could have it replaced at a later date down the road if he survived. He survived that surgery on Thanksgiving day. During the 10 days that followed I held onto my son 12 times as he almost died. I watched him turn blue. They were using an ambu bag on him and was trying to get his lungs to respond and hold a oxygen saturation level. I screamed everytime " Don't you leave me Richie, Don't you you do it! Fight!!". He held on and bounced back each time and kept fighting. There are a million details on the horrible rollercoaster that would continue as we fight for his life. After 28 days in a medically induced coma. They started pulling back sedation and he start waking up. Then very slowly he started proving every doctor wrong. He cannot speak because he has a Tracheostomy but he began to communicate by sqweezing his thump to say yes. He started moving a few things on his left side but very little on his right side. Because his brain bleed was on the left side of the brain his right side of his body will be affected the most, along with motor skills and speech. This is why getting him the right rehabilitation and Rehab therapies as soon as possible are vital. He has had multiple surgeries and has a few yet to go. He understands things, remembers some things, knows us. Shows emotion and pain. If you are able to help his rehabilitation fund financially it would allow us to get him the help he needs that insurance does not cover financially. The bill for the Medivac Helicopter that air lifted him from the scene to the University of Tennessee Trauma Center is $51,500 alone and is not covered by insurance. He has now been in the hospital for 63 days. Our goal is to send him to Shepard Rehabilitation Center in Atlanta Georgia as soon as he is strong enough to handle about 3-4 hours a day of intense daily rehab. The Shepard Center is in the top ten best traumatic brain injury rehabs in the United States. Our insurance covers only a very short limitation on days allowed and this rehab is his best chance for a quality of life and a future. If you are able our family would be so grateful for any help that you donate. Our family and our lives have been flipped upside down and every facet of our lives has changed. We are trying to figure it out but the most important thing is to be able to get my son the rehab he needs to have the best life possible. It can be so hard to ask for help, but when it's your child's life & future at stake you learn to put your ego aside and trust God that his need will reach the people that are able to help and that God has chosen to be our angels. I have learned that even the people that are usually the givers sometimes need some help themselves. The power of prayer is great and the power of love is the greatest of all. Love will win!