I'm Chris, a chef for the community in the San Diego Country Estates. My father, James Ostermann, was in a significant accident while driving home in his cart from my restaurant on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I'd just missed him and found out by passing the accident scene, oblivious to the fact that it was him. Something was wrong; I thought it was his cart, but I didn't see his puppy, so I went to work.

You get that feeling, the tingle that something isn't quite right, so that morning I left my kitchen and went back to the scene. It WAS his cart. The CHP officer on the scene told me to take deep breaths, and the life flight passed overhead at about that moment. We got the puppy home thanks to the amazing Sheriff Department in Ramona, but Dad has been battling some pretty grievous injuries. There was extensive bleeding; the scene looked as though he had been dragged under his cart for about 15 feet. There are multiple fractures from ribs to scapula, loss of tissue in his knee, dislocations, arterial bleeding, and fractures in his pelvis.

Everything at the moment is still touch and go, but we are hopeful that the incredible team at Palomar Health can get us through this.

It all kind of hits hard going into the holidays... Mom passed on the 7th of this month, and then this. The community around me has been so incredibly amazing helping with the grief. It's, to say the least, a strangely wonderful experience when the people you serve suddenly become your surrogate family and show you nothing but kindness and support. I could not ask to be surrounded by better people at an incredibly rough time like this.

Any support would be so greatly appreciated. Medical bills will surely be significant, as he has undergone multiple complicated surgeries, and ongoing treatment is still unknown at this time, but will certainly be extremely extensive. The road to recovery is going to be a long one, but we are trying to remain hopeful.