The Wurm Family Needs Your Help

The Wurm Family Needs Your Help

On June 6th, while returning home to Upper Lake from the Central Valley on his motorcycle via Hwy 16, Mike was struck by a driver who ran a red light. Mike was life-flighted to the nearest trauma hospital in Vacaville where his many horrific injuries were identified — so many that it is nearly impossible to keep track of them all. These include a brain bleed, a fractured c6 and c7 vertebrae in his neck (which thankfully did not include any impact to his spinal column), a brachial plexus nerve injury to his right arm/shoulder (this severely impacts his ability to move his arm/hands), several chipped vertebrae throughout his spine, many broken ribs, a broken lower left arm/wrist/hand, a compound fracture to his right femur necessitating a rod placement through the length of the femur and a plate with 4 screws at the tibial end of the bone, and a severe avulsion break of his right leg/ankle/foot necessitating another rod/plate through his fibula and 5 more screws at the ankle joint. Thankfully, Mike was wearing his helmet at the time of his accident and his brain bleed was brought under control swiftly with his precious memories and cognition intact. Helmets do work!

As you may know, Mike and his wife Erin are a super team and tackle each task, hurdle and chore together to care for and support each other, their children and their home. These many tasks, including caring for their 18 month old daughter Lola (Mike had been an active and fun stay-at-home dad) and their two dogs and home, are now falling solely on Erin while she continues to tackle the new challenges of battling insurance companies, meeting with doctors and specialists while advocating for Mike and for her family’s best interest and planning for a rocky and extended road to recovery — a plan that seems to continue to draw out longer and longer as time passes. Mike will need a skilled nursing level of 24-7 care for many months (just how many will be dependent on how his recovery and healing progresses), and their home may require adjustments depending on the medical equipment Mike will need when he returns home. He will also be spending time at a physical rehabilitation facility to help him regain as much function as possible. Most of the facilities capable of addressing the care and rehabilitation necessary for Mike’s injuries are in the Bay Area or Central Valley. Which means many hours away from Lola, many meals eaten on the road, many motel rooms, many tanks of gas, and many long hours behind the wheel for Erin to be able to see Mike and meet with his many specialists, social workers and his attorney. The early estimate of an anticipated recovery time given by the trauma team was a tentative 12-18 months with possible additional surgeries over time. As the list of specialized facilities capable of caring for such a complex set of injuries isn’t a very long one, it has been explained that unfortunately there are going to be wait lists — which will have to be endured while Mike remains away from home and in the care of medical professionals. They are looking at a long, long road.

Each week away from home for Mike will mean an average of at least one trip with gasoline, meals, a cheap hotel and childcare for Lola — or roughly $300-$500 out of pocket per week for the Wurms on top of their regular bills. Erin has retained an attorney to help fight the uphill legal battle to hold the driver’s insurance company accountable, but this is not guaranteed and will likely take at least a year or more before receiving any relief.

Aside from this, Erin also has many commitments to the community through her job as a 1st Grade teacher at Upper Lake Elementary school. This is a job she loves and has worked so hard at in tackling hurdles and challenges to provide nurturing and supportive learning to the community’s young minds throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. All of this (being the sole able body in the household for all activities of daily living required for keeping the household functional, caring for Lola who is not yet potty trained, teaching a large group of 1st graders, and now addressing all of the many tasks involved in spearheading the detailed and lengthy treatment plan to get Mike back on his feet) Erin has addressed while enduring her own broken back. Impossibly, 1 week before Mike’s tragic accident, Erin herself was given the scary and painful diagnosis of a broken vertebra — a condition that leaves her barely able to lift her daughter without paralyzing and agonizing pain.

Mike and Erin Wurm need their friends and community members support through this difficult set of extreme adversities that have fallen on them. Monetary donations of any amount are thankfully accepted, but so are well wishes and prayers as well as shares of their story via social media and word of mouth. It all counts in the effort to help Mike and Erin find their feet again to continue their lives as the thoughtful and fun parents, friends and active community members we all know them to be.