Support for Paramedic's Recovery and Family

We are starting the GoFundMe for our dad and mom.

Almost a year ago our father, Chris, was working on an ambulance as a paramedic. He took a call for a patient that needed help and during transport, our father was assaulted and severely injured. He has a severely herniated disc in his neck and hasn't been able to sleep from the pain. He is struggling with crippling pain in his neck in his arms. He has been on workman's comp since the assault. He went through physical therapy but was told the only help would be surgery. Then he had to fight with comp to get the surgery approved. Comp fought him every, single step of the way. They have also lowered his pay more than once and paid him late on more than one occasion.

On December 11th, he had surgery to repair the discs in his neck that was causing him problems. His pain had started to get worse after surgery. On December 20th, he was back in the hospital and had to undergo an emergency surgery for an infection that had started. The infection was so severe that it went from the front of his neck back to his spine. He came out of surgery with a drain in his neck and an NG tube to eat. He is not allowed to have anything at all down the esophagus. As of Christmas Eve he is still draining from the infection, is being fed through the NG tube and is in tremendous pain from the infection. He is unable to spend the holiday with his children and grandchildren. To add insult to injury this week - two days before Christmas - comp has decided not to pay him. The doctors are working around the clock, taking his recovery day by day. There is no plan for him to come home to be with family. He will need to be fed through the tube for awhile. He will also come home with a PICC line to continue to receive IV antibiotics at home. He is also suffering from PTSD from the attack.

This is a man who has overcome so much to make it through schooling to become a EMT at the age of 49 and then right into paramedic school and graduated at the age of 51. He went into this field to help people. He has willingly missed family holidays and events to work a job he loves. He was a volunteer paramedic but can longer volunteer due to his injuries. His goal is to get back to work for himself and his family.

No one talks about the dark side of the job. Helping people and being there on the worst day of their life is absolutely the job he signed up for. Being violently attacked is not. Please help us help one of our proud first responders still provide for his family while he is recovering.

If we can help lift some of the burden off of his shoulders and let him focus solely on recovery that would be amazing. Our mother travels to the hospital everyday and gas and parking is not cheap. Our dad does have a lawyer and they are working hard for our dad however the process is slow. Our dad is not one to ask for help so we are doing it for him. If you can't donate please at least share.