Support Tony Batulis In His Path Toward Recovery

Hi everyone! My name is Candace Batulis and I am making this fundraiser for my dad Tony Batulis. He was in a severe car crash in January. We are incredibly grateful that he is alive and getting better, but healing will take time and assistance. I am an only child and a senior at Kennesaw State, and I am my dad’s primary support as my mother Cheryl passed away from a heart attack 12 years ago. Any help you give will reduce the weight on my shoulders and will aid Tony in his journey towards healing.

When my dad reads this over, he will be just as surprised as you. He can’t remember the majority of his first three weeks at the hospital. He’s asked me not to tell him details because it’s overwhelming. We think his memory is back to normal and then mention something that happened a week or two ago and he has no idea what we’re referring to. I’ve told him simple things about the nature of the crash a handful of times and often it is like I have told him for the first time. I think this is the result of a likely concussion and we are hoping his memory improves.

What Happened

On Tuesday January 25th, while driving home from a dentist appointment, my dad Tony assumingly lost consciousness and crashed full speed into a tree on West Sandtown Rd in Marietta, Georgia. Around 5pm that day, he lost control and veered off the road. We are looking into factors possibly related to the dental work, since he had no prior history of health issues. Looking at his car, there was blood from head wounds on the passenger side airbag and in the passenger seat area of the car. You can also see a tear in the leather on the passenger side where his head likely slammed back after the airbag deployed. All of this suggests that he slumped over, possibly fainting, while driving before actually hitting the tree. Luckily, he was wearing his seatbelt, but that did not seem to help prevent injury to his right leg whatsoever.

Tony was driving off road/next to the road for something like 20 yards. The witness driving the opposite way saw him start to swerve off the road when she passed him, when she looked in her rearview, she saw him hit a mailbox, and then when she was turning around she heard him hit the tree. He hit a mailbox at one address, and a tree at the next, so as you can see this is not an incident of dozing off, sending a text, or losing focus.

The crash attracted the nearby neighbors, who were very caring and called 911 and approached the car to check on him. One called me from my dad’s cellphone saying that the man with this phone had been in a bad accident. At this time, I was freaking out since I though he might’ve died; it was a gut wrenching feeling that I’m already familiar with. Fortunately, they informed me that he was alive but in concerning condition. EMS brought him to the ER at Kennestone Hospital. I wasn’t allowed to see him that night but I did the next morning.

My dad was badly injured. You could see that his whole body was impacted. The first few days he mostly couldn’t move, and everything was inflamed. He bit down so hard on impact that he lacerated his lip and tongue, making it difficult for him to speak. He had dried blood on his face, back of the head, and trailing from his ears. A day or two into his stay you could see bruising and a black eye. When I spoke to him, he would often fall asleep mid-sentence due to the pain medication. It was terrifying for me to see him like this. And it was hard to deal with this experience alone, since only one caregiver was allowed for visitation. Seeing him in the ICU, visiting his empty home, getting police reports, and retrieving his demolished and bloodied car made the first week feel like I was opening a Russian doll of my nightmares. I held it together in front of him, but the first 3 or 4 days each time I got back to my car after a visit I would break down.

It was an incredible relief when we started to get in a rhythm and he began to look and act like himself again.

He was wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident and I’m not sure how, but his right leg received massive impact, causing fractures in his tibia which interrupted the blood flow in his popliteal artery. He had to be rushed into surgery when they realized the fractures were cutting off blood flow to the rest of his leg. They performed surgery on the artery, put large pins on the outside of my dad’s leg to keep everything in proper position, and put his ankle back in place. I visited him that Wednesday, and everything seemed to be on track. That night however they realized blood flow to his foot had stopped (compartment syndrome). And they rushed him back into surgery and performed a fasciotomy to reduce swelling. These incisions remained open for over a week.

Doctors performed surgery for a wash out a few days later when we were hoping they could close it up (swelling hadn’t gone down yet) and they had to wait a while before finally being able to close it in two procedures. They were not able to get the skin fully closed so they performed a skin graft as well. During these procedures they removed the pins and put rods in his leg. After the fasciotomy, skin graft, meniscus repair, and invasive rods, my dad had over 100 staples in his leg for a few days (and more in his ankle that are still there.) From my knowledge he’s had a total of 5 surgeries.

The main injuries:

Dissection of right popliteal artery (behind the knee), closed fracture of right tibial plateau, compartment syndrome (same right leg), popliteal hemorrhagic cyst, closed bicondylar fracture of right tibial plateau, open ankle dislocation, neck fracture, 4 rib fractures, 3 back fractures, bleeding of the stomach and intestines. And lastly, possible traumatic brain injury that is being investigated.

He spent 5 weeks in the hospital and is now at an assisted care facility (for hopefully 1 month) where he will focus on healing until he is able to maneuver stairs and go home.

What we are raising the money for:

His maximum out-of-pocket cost for medical bills set by insurance ($7,500), assisted living for one month ($3,800), and any additional accommodations he will need for his transition back to normal (medical devices paid for out of pocket, bandage material, home maintenance my dad can not do, plus other things). Lastly, money raised will replace lost wages over the 5 weeks that he spent in the hospital and for the next 3 months (hopefully only 3) while he heals. He works as a real estate agent and won’t be able to go back to work until he can drive again. Anything raised in excess of our goal will go to the purchase of his next car, since his 1997 mercury marquis has seen the end of its days. He sure got his use out of it.

My dad Tony will have ongoing doctors’ appointments and physical therapy. This *should* be covered by his insurance plan and thus fall under his out-of-pocket max.

We are so grateful for the support we have gotten so far. This has been traumatizing for both of us, and I want my dad to be able to focus on healing instead of medical bills. Kind words, visits, and phone calls are great non-monetary gifts. We are very hopeful for the future, and he is healing quickly. Every time he goes to see a new doctor or physical therapist, they expect to see much worse and are shocked at how fast he is recovering. Overall things are going well, and we want to keep the good momentum going!!!

You can see he's already looking a lot better in the picture I took during physical therapy below.

Thank you!!

Candace Batulis