Taylor has a long road of recovery

Hi, I'm Shanon Fortenberry, Taylor's mom. On Friday, November 18 at approximately 10:45 PM, I received a phone call no parent wants to receive; my son had been in a horrific motorcycle accident and was transported to Plano Presbyterian hospital. Without having any idea of his condition and being told only that it was really bad, Taylor's dad and I rushed to the hospital as fast as we could. While waiting to hear what condition Taylor was in, the rest of his family arrived, and a few of his closest friends. We all just were sick waiting; not knowing anything for two hours. Finally, the trauma surgeon came and shared with us Taylor's condition.

Taylor was riding his motorcycle home after visiting with friends when he lost control of his bike. Although Taylor was wearing his helmet, the front of the helmet came up fully exposing Taylor's face which led to the extensive facial trauma he experienced. His face was just part of the damage Taylor has experienced.

Starting from the top down; Taylor's hard palate was broken in half, and most of his top teeth were shoved back into his soft palate (the roof of his mouth) and into his sinus cavity. His nose and cheekbones were broken, and the soft facial tissue (mouth and chin) was torn almost completely off. He had a broken rib, punctured lung, fractured vertebrae, and three breaks within his left arm. Then comes the lower parts of Taylor's body. His left leg (tibia) was so shattered the bone basically disintegrated and now has to be replaced with a bone graft. The small bone of his left leg (fibula) was broken in 3 places. His ankles and feet on both legs are completely shattered. And when I say shattered, I mean there was actual bone fragments on the road from where they found Taylor lying. When the emergency team found him, he was unresponsive and had lost a lot of blood.

Fast forward two weeks: By the grace of God, there wasn't any brain damage. We thank the Lord every day for this blessing. As of last night, he has had four surgeries, which include reconstructive facial surgery, arm and leg surgery, and a surgery on one of his feet and ankles. I wish I could say that would be all that's needed to put Taylor back together again, but it's not. There are at least 6 or more surgeries ahead for Taylor and a lot of recovery and rehabilitation.

Part of the process of putting Taylor back together are the many bone grafts required to replace all the bone loss from the accidient. All in all we're looking at Taylor being in recovery for almost a year. 8 months of that year will be without being able to walk since he will not be able to put any weight or pressure on his legs, ankles or feet while the bone grafts take hold. Once the bones have all stabilized this is when he will begin learning to walk again.

After looking over Taylor's insurance and any additional coverage he might have, we've learned that Taylor does not have short or long term disability and therefore will not have any sort of income while he's recovering. His job is secure and he is blessed to have one to come back to, but he will need help paying his monthly expenses while he's not working. The money I'm hoping to raise for Taylor will go towards those monthly expenses he has during his recovery and rehabilitation.