First, thank you for hearing Dan’s story and considering support for Dan’s needs.

In February, my husband Dan and I made a bucket list ski trip with many friends. During a group tour of the mountain on our first day, Dan suffered a life changing ski accident with a broken neck paralyzing Dan from the neck down.

Dan was air lifted off the mountain and later transported to Northwestern Hospital and the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago. Due to the nature of his break, he was not expected to survive, let alone have any recovery at all. We were told he would never have any mobility. These were dark moments for Dan and our family as you can imagine, but Dan chose to live and to fight! We are grateful that his mind, wonderful personality and his love for life remain with us.

Dan gave his all to every rehabilitation session and made miraculous progress. While confined to a wheelchair with no mobility, my champion can now:

1. Take actual treadmill steps on his own when supported with a harness.

2. Move his toes effortlessly and bring his feet together enough to touch.

3. Raise his arms up to his side to place his hands on his lap.

4. Lift his elbows about 3”-4” off the arm rest and lift his hands off his lap 4”-5”.

5. Touch his thumb to his index finger, the first step to grasping!!!

Although this progress seems so basic, his muscles are firing, albeit weak, it is progress doctors never thought he’d make. It gives us hope that he can recover and gain some mobility to improve his quality of life. Just being able to feed himself would mean everything.

While Dan continues to make miraculous progress with your prayers, he needs daily caregiver support at home, and it takes several hours to get him ready every morning for rehabilitation and appointments and two people to move him.

The costs for Dan’s basic needs continue to escalate and Medicare will no longer pay for his rehabilitation. We purchased a handicap accessible van so he could go to rehabilitation and our home has been modified for handicap accessible ramps and other modifications. His rehabilitation sessions are frequent and cost $90 each.

Our immediate need is to safeguard and regulate the house and Dan’s body temperature should we suffer any kind of electric shortage. A power outage at the wrong time would be deadly for Dan. The cost of a generator for our home is estimated at $9-12,000.

The purpose of this page is to build a support fund to cover the transportation, continued rehabilitation, daily caregiver cost, and the much-needed generator for our home. Any amount of support is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your prayers and support!