Support Katie York's Road to Recovery

I am creating this GoFundMe on behalf of my best friend of 20 years, Katie York.

Katie was involved in a tragic horse related incident while at work on Saturday September 7th. She was bringing a horse inside for dinner, when she was caught in between a gate and a panicked horse. Katie was trampled when the horse attempted to jump the gate and came down on top of her. Katie’s friend and coworker was in the right place, at the right time and saved her life by using her belt as a tourniquet. We are forever grateful for her quick thinking and determination to keep Katie alive. A helicopter was called to transport Katie, but the ambulance was able to get her stable enough and couldn’t wait. She was met by a trauma team of 20 at the ER and they immediately went to work.

In addition to Katie’s leg wound, she has a horribly sprained ankle, rope burn around her neck from the lead rope getting caught during the accident, and general pain and bruising covering her entire body. It is truly a miracle that she doesn’t have any broken bones or internal bleeding.

Katie had surgery early in the morning the day after the accident, in attempt to assess the damage, clean, and treat the wound. The surgeons originally planned to leave the wound open with a wound vac, but decided against it… The next several days were spent trying to manage her pain, a blood transfusion, bandage changes, heavy antibiotics and so much more. By the 4th day, her medical team could tell that her body was rejecting the closure and the skin was dying. Surgery was scheduled for day 7 and her team re-opened the wound, cleaned the dying tissue, and left the wound open until her next surgery that is planned for later this week. They are waiting to see how her body tolerates this most recent surgery before deciding what to do next. With an open wound of course comes the unbearable bandage changes, packing of the wound, and in time wound-vac care. Katie is in an immense amount of pain with fear of what her future holds.

Seeing someone you love in this kind of pain is gut wrenching and we want to do something to help ease the financial fear in the back of her mind. As many of you know, Katie has a son (Sean), two horses of her own( Maya & Dakota), her beloved dog (Riley) and sweet cat (Emma). Katie works on a horse farm here in NC and we are unsure what her future holds in terms of when or how she will get back to work. Katie is the hardest working person I know. She treats every horse on the farm like her own, putting their needs far above and beyond her own. The fear of leaving her teammates short staffed, falling behind financially, missing her animals, and worrying about what her future will look like is heartbreaking. I started this go fund me in hopes to raise funds to help ease her worries while she is on this long road to recovery. Before her second surgery, doctors were estimating 6 months- 1 year recovery. We are unsure at this time what the next surgeries have added in terms of recovery time. Unfortunately, while Katie’s world seems at a standstill, the world keeps spinning, bills keep coming and the worries are piling up. The last thing we want her worrying about while fighting for her life, is finances. If you find it in your heart to donate, we will forever be grateful. If you can’t donate, please share, and continue to pray for healing and full recovery. I will update after her 3rd surgery this week!

Thank you from the very bottom of my heart!!

Love, June