Help Roarke’s Recovery & Family
*Read my story below the pics and videos*
Thank you for checking out my gofundme, my name is Roarke. I’m thirty years old, the father of an amazing son and partner to his beautiful mother, Cristina. I work (prior to this accident) full-time at a hotel, but when I’m not working my passion is my side business, working on and with retro video game consoles, where my son and I mold and cast custom plastic parts for retro consoles and controllers that are no longer being made, serviced or supported, I hope that one day my passion will grow enough that it can be my full time career!
On the night of April 14th while driving home from work I was in a terrible car accident, due to a bad concussion and being unconscious for the next few days, I can’t remember anything about what happened that night. I suffered over thirty fractures including multiple hairline skull fractures, 11 broken ribs, broke my sacrum, fractured my pelvis in multiple places, an anterior acetabular fracture (broke the socket of my hip), three compound fractures (when then bone sticks out of the skin) on my right femur, broke one knee and dislocated the other patella (knee cap), left fibulae head fracture (top of the shin bone), left medal and lateral malleolus (both are bones in my ankle) were fractured, right foot lisfranc fracture and dislocated all of my metatarsals (foot bones), multiple lacerations as well as severe soft tissue and nerve damage. But the worst injury of all was that my Femoral Artery was severed, this can cause death within minutes, in fact I almost completely bled out, but was saved because some unknown person put a tourniquet around my leg to slow the bleeding. Even still by the time we had reached the hospital, which was about 45 minutes away I had gone into hemorrhagic shock which is when your body begins to shut down due to blood loss and therefore inadequate amounts of Oxygen being delivered to your organs. I was told that they used 45 units of blood to keep me alive while they fixed me up. While the tourniquet saved my life, it also meant that my right leg and foot went over an hour without blood causing serious nerve damage, in fact the doctors considered amputation, but thankfully were able to save it. Some of the doctors and surgeons later explained to me that I really shouldn’t have survived this, at that most people wouldn’t have pulled through, one of the doctors said half jokingly that the only reason I did survive was because I’m a stubborn Irishman! Hahaha and to be fair he was not wrong, I am very stubborn and strong willed. I’m not ready to go, I have much more to do here! After many surgeries, skin grafts and lots of metal being screwed into me, I am in the process of recovering. I have been working my butt off for a month and a half doing physical and occupational therapy for two to four hours a day, everyday, doing everything within my power to get better and just yesterday I stood up on one foot for the first time! I promise that I will continue to work hard I put everything that I have into fully recovering! I will, no matter what, walk again!
The purpose of this gofundme is to raise money which would be used to help pay my massive medical bills, to help cover my rent/utilities/groceries and child care costs while I am out of work, cover outpatient physical therapy when I am discharged and to help buy the necessary medical supplies for my home when I’m discharged (like a wheelchair, support bars, wound care supplies, etc.). It should be very clear that any and all contributions/donations are personal gifts and will NOT receive any type of service or product in return for doing so. Additionally because these are personal gifts, and I am NOT a non-profit charity you will NOT be able to write your contribution off on your taxes as this is a gift NOT a charitable donation. Additionally gofundme will take 2.9% + $0.30 per gift donation.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story and for considering helping out, words can’t even begin to describe how much I appreciate the generosity of our community!
Sincerely,
Roarke Murdock
