Support Jeremy's Recovery

On the evening of May 14th, my youngest brother Jeremy was in a horrible car accident. He sustained life threatening injuries including multiple skull fractures, a laceration to the membrane surrounding the brain, and a fractured spine. He was MedFlighted to Mass General where he was intubated and sedated. On the 15th, Jeremy underwent brain surgery to relieve intracranial pressure and repair the fractures and lacerated membrane. A second surgery was done on his spine to remove bone fragments in order to prevent paralysis. Jeremy’s sedation has been intermittently lightened to assess his brain function. He has been able to move all four limbs and on May 16th he was able to nod his head in response to the neurologist. At the time of this writing, Jeremy remains intubated and fully sedated. He is fighting but his condition is critical. As a family, we are so thankful for the care that Jeremy has been receiving and we are ready to support him on his long road to recovery, whatever that may look like. As you can imagine, this is going to be a very costly journey and I am creating this GoFundMe hoping to relieve some of that burden. Anyone who knows Jeremy knows he is something special. He is hilarious, kind, creative, a lover of animals, and so much more. I know I can speak for my whole family when I say we are humbled by the outpouring of love and prayers from so many, and we know Jeremy will be too.

***UPDATE 05/21/21***

The doctors and nurses are still working hard to keep Jeremy’s intercranial pressure and temperature down. He has had a fever off and on which is likely due to his brain injury, but they are doing labs/tests to make sure he doesn’t have any infections. They briefly lightened his sedation earlier and he was able to squeeze the nurse’s hand when they asked him to. The fact that his brain was able to process that information and produce an appropriate motor response is really great news. For now, he is back to being fully sedated but they will continue to intermittently lighten it for reassessment.

***UPDATE 05/26/21***

Jeremy was taken off of the ventilator around 1:00 this afternoon and is breathing on his own. He is still heavily sedated but they are able to consistently lighten it every four hours. So far, he has been able to tolerate his sedation being lightened for about 15 minutes before his intercranial pressure increases. He has still be opening his eyes, moving all of his limbs, and following basic commands. Yesterday he was able to follow a two step command: “look at Dana and give him a thumbs up.” 

***UPDATE 05/28/21***

Jeremy walked ten feet today and sat up in a chair for three hours. His speech is difficult to understand and it still isn’t safe for him to eat or drink anything by mouth. He’s confused but was reading off of the TV during our visit today and asked me if he could kiss my hand (I let him). The speech therapist came up while I was there to let Jeremy try some water, thickened apple juice, and apple sauce. When he swallowed the apple sauce the speech therapist asked him how it was and he said, “mild...” the therapist looked at him with a confused look and he said, “like maybe Granny Smith.” I almost died before saying “Jeremy, I think she’s asking how it felt going down.”

***UPDATE 06/08/21***

Just got off of the phone with Jeremy and he had a really good day today. He did a lot of walking, including some outside on uneven surfaces and a few flights of stairs! He said he still feels really tired after a lot of walking but that he hasn’t lost his balance since yesterday. Right now, he is hoping to discharge by the beginning of next week, as long as his lab work comes back okay on Monday. The recovery that he’s made is incredible and he’s feeling super lucky to be where he’s at.