Support Michael's Recovery After Bear Accident

On Saturday, September 7 at around 11pm, Michael was involved in a car accident. He hit a bear that ran into the road, and despite braking, hit it at about 50mph. When the airbag deployed, it shattered his glasses into his left eye, busted his lip inside his mouth, caused a large laceration on his eyebrow, broke his nose, and severely sprained and lacerated his left thumb. He was initially taken via ambulance to an emergency room in Thief River Falls, but upon further inspection, it was decided he needed to be airlifted to Grand Forks, ND to have emergency surgery done by an eye specialist. Initially, they saw 3 large lacerations in his eye, but once surgery started, they found several smaller ones in addition, and they also had to remove the remaining glass shards. At this time, it is unclear how well he will recover. He can't see much other than large blobs of white, and occasionally some color if it's very close to his face. There is no timeline for recovery. He may need additional surgeries, as he has blood in the back of his eye, as well as a potential corneal transplant if scarring is too severe. He will be out of work for an indefinite amount of time, and we are not yet sure how much car and health insurance will cover in regards to his medical bills. The car itself is totaled, and while we are not at all upset by this because it kept him alive, he did have a balance remaining on the car loan that car insurance likely won't pay out enough to cover. Anything helps, and we will post updates as they come, but for now, it is simply a waiting game to see how well the sutures heal and if he regains any amount of vision over the next few months.

Small update: it was brought to my attention that someone else's helicopter flight to a hospital cost several thousand dollars, so we have increased our goal in efforts to be prepared for when his bills start coming in. Thank you for taking the time to read