LeAnn and Tracy's Road to Recovery: Help Pave the Way

In November, LeAnn and Tracy were in a serious car accident while driving to Colorado to visit family for Thanksgiving. While traveling down a state highway a car inexplicably and illegally pulled out in front of them, causing their Subaru to T-bone the at-fault vehicle, crumpling their car into an unrecognizable heap. LeAnn was extracted from the vehicle and life-flighted to a hospital with multiple fractures and life-threatening injuries. Tracy suffered a serious concussion and miraculously walked away from the accident. Since then, Tracy has been attending to treatments specific to her concussion, and is grateful that she’s has been able to return to work at her own pace.

LeAnn was not that fortunate. Hospitalized in Colorado, she was blessed to have an excellent orthopedic trauma surgeon operate on her three-times broken right arm, twice. He also performed two surgeries on her left femur which was broken eight times into nine pieces. She required a blood transfusion (and is grateful for those who donate blood). Her sternum was broken in two places, and four vertebra were fractured, so she was put into an upper-body brace. In the brace, while sitting in a wheelchair, she may not have been a pretty sight, but she was so thankful to be alive!

After two weeks in the hospital, LeAnn was transferred to a Rehabilitation Center, where the goal of three hours of therapy each day was to get her in good enough shape to survive a 10-hour car ride back to Des Moines. She stepped up to the challenge of physical therapy and was able to return home by Christmas. By this time she knew without a doubt that it was only because of prayer and the grace of God that she had made it this far.

Back home, the medical appointments and therapy appointments continued on a near-daily basis. But this time, the locations and even some of the medical professionals, were familiar places and even faces! To be home! To be hugged by family members! To receive holiday cards and get-well notes! To welcome beloved faces from Plymouth and St. Stephen into their home! To be nourished by food and conversation that arrived at 5:30 in the evening! It was all such gift! Tracy and LeAnn both imagined that they could see the light at the end of the tunnel. But on January 9, Tracy drove LeAnn to the E.R. where she was admitted and treated for a pulmonary embolism. After three days in the hospital it became clear to everyone that LeAnn was not ready to even entertain the thought of going back to work anytime soon.

And still the prayers, and the texts and the visits. Their spirits and hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude to be connected to such amazing people, such amazing communities and such amazing love. They are filled with awe that bodies do heal.

Even with insurance, the shock of receiving the $61,000 life-flight helicopter transport bill was staggering. The medical bills are infinite; the car is totaled; the at-fault driver is under-insured; and LeAnn is on long-term disability with hopes of walking on her own by late June/July. (Offers of a basket for her walker have not been met with great excitement.) LeAnn hopes to get in shape to walk the El Camino in 2028! Let's walk with her now so she can walk that dream!

So many of you have asked, "How else can I help, what more can I do?" Today it is clear how we all might do that: Please make a donation to this GoFundMe to help Tracy and LeAnn on this long road to recovery. Our goal is to raise $50,000 to assist the family during this time of significant and totally unforseen financial impact.

Tracy and LeAnn want you to know: "We are never alone ... God calls us into communities to care for one another, and we will never have enough words to thank our communities for this care at this time."

PS: LeAnn wrote an Epistle to Plymouth Congregational Church, Des Moines, each week. You can read them here