Help Paddy & His Family Through His Recovery

Hi everyone,

 

As you're probably aware, Paddy was recently hit by a car while enjoying a weekend away. After several life saving surgeries by the medical team at Inland Valley Medical Center, today, he remains in a coma with more surgeries ahead, a threat of brain damage, and no matter what way you look at it, a very long road to recovery.

 

Besides being a star full-forward (and tidy golfer), Paddy never hesitates to volunteer his time with less experienced players, helping coaches and recently joined our club board. In just 1 season, Paddy made several close friends across the club, and is a core member of our community. We will are committed to doing all we can to support him and his family through this tough time.

 

Paddy is well supported by many but the true impact of that support can unfortunately depend on finances (especially when dealing with the US health system). In coordination with the below supporters of Paddy, we are publishing this fundraiser as a central place for all of Paddy's global communities, friends, colleagues and teammates to come and contribute to supporting Paddy's recovery and his family.

 

All raised funds will be transferred by the club to Paddy and his family to support his recovery and enable them to support him as much as possible on the ground here in CA.

 

Examples of fund use can include paying medical bills, covering a cooked meal for him or his parents after a long (and inevitably sometimes stressful) day at the hospital and enabling his tight-knit family to travel here and manage their general living costs as they attempt to be with him as much as possible. There is also a chance Paddy will require long term care that is very often not covered by personal health insurance so we want to be prepared to support that.

 

For transparency, we will post confirmations of fund transfers from us to the family in the updates section of the fundraiser. Any unused funds upon Paddy's full recovery will flow downstream and be donated to causes who helped along the way and that the family support.

 

Times like these show the strength of community. Aside from expat GAA, Paddy has several circles of friends and communities he has so positively impacted who have also become a key part of the team pitching in to help.
 
1) Closest friends; these heroes were on-scene at the hospital and Paddy's bedside during the darkest hours. They were also instrumental in getting early news out to Paddy's wider community and will no doubt continue to support him and his family through everything. True friends Paddy can rely on.
 
2) Paddy's employer, Eco Outdoor, has stepped up in a truly exceptional way to support him since learning of the accident. By managing insurance and legal ends, providing Paddy's parents with transport, and looking after several of Paddy's personal expenses, their efforts here have been so massive it is clear they care a lot about their team members and are an incredible organization.
 
3) Dragons AFL - having lived in Australia prior to his move to LA, Paddy, naturally made lots of friends with the locals and became a highly proficient Aussie Rules player too! He is also a core member of the Dragon's community, and their club stands ready to support Paddy and his family through this tough time.

 

Together, let's raise as much as we can, crush the goal and get Paddy and his family through this.

 

-Eoghan Geoghegan (Gags)

Los Angeles Cougars GAA President