Help Elsei Heal After a Devastating Assault

Our family is asking for help for my wife, Elsei, who is recovering from a violent assault that left her with devastating injuries.

Elsei suffered a skull fracture, bleeding in her brain, fractured ribs, and loss of consciousness. She was taken to Washington Hospital as a trauma patient and admitted to the ICU. She has already spent more than five days in the hospital, and we still do not know what the full road to recovery will look like.

This tragedy comes after several extremely difficult years for our family. From 2024 through 2026, I battled cancer and was unable to work for much of that time. Elsei became our family's primary breadwinner, while treatment and living expenses largely exhausted our savings, retirement funds, and even a recent inheritance.

Just as we were beginning to rebuild, this terrible assault happened.

Now the person who carried our family through my illness is the one who needs help.

A Nurse Who Has Dedicated Her Life to Helping Others

Caring for people isn't simply Elsei's profession. It is part of who she is.

Elsei is a hospice nurse who works with patients and their families during some of the most difficult and emotional moments of their lives. She provides comfort, guidance, and dignity to people facing circumstances no family ever wants to face.

She also wanted to make that knowledge available to people outside of her work.

Through "Comfort & Clarity with Nurse Elsei", she created educational videos on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to share her experience and help patients, caregivers, and families better understand and navigate difficult situations.

People in our community also know Elsei through her Red Box community project. Through Red Box, she helps provide food and other essential items to people who are struggling and need a little help getting through a difficult time.

Elsei has always been someone who sees a person struggling and asks:

“How can I help?”

Today, we are asking others to do the same for her.

What Happened

The assault caused serious injuries that may take considerable time to heal. In addition to her physical injuries, Elsei's phone was taken and destroyed during the attack.

For Elsei, her phone wasn't simply a personal possession. It was one of the primary tools she used to communicate, create her educational content, stay connected with people, and continue the outreach that is so important to her.

But replacing her phone is only one small part of what lies ahead.

We are facing medical and recovery expenses that are still uncertain. Elsei may be unable to return to work for some time, which means the income our household depended upon has suddenly stopped at exactly the moment when our expenses are increasing.

After exhausting so much of our financial safety net during my cancer treatment, we simply don't have the resources we once had to absorb another major crisis.

How Your Donation Will Help

Funds raised will help us with:

We don't yet know how long Elsei's recovery will take or what additional treatment she may require. That uncertainty is one of the hardest parts of this situation.

Every donation—large or small—will give us more breathing room and allow Elsei to concentrate on what matters most right now: healing.

If you aren't able to donate, please consider sharing Elsei's story. Sharing this fundraiser with friends, family, coworkers, and your community can be just as valuable in helping us reach the people who may be able to help.

Helping the Person Who Has Helped So Many Others

For years, Elsei has been the person helping someone else—her hospice patients, their families, people who found her educational videos, members of our community who needed food or essential supplies, and our own family while I fought cancer.

Now the person who carried our family through my illness is the one who needs help

Our immediate priority is making sure Elsei has everything she needs to recover and that our family can remain financially stable while she heals.

If this fundraiser ultimately raises more than is needed for Elsei's recovery and the expenses resulting from the assault, we intend to pay that kindness forward through Elsei's Red Box project, helping other people who find themselves facing difficult times.

Thank you for reading Elsei's story, for donating if you are able, and for sharing this fundraiser with others.

Most of all, thank you for keeping Elsei and our family in your thoughts as she begins her journey toward recovery.