Tony Whalen's Surgery

Hi, my name is Karen and my son Tony Whalen is in need of some help. He doesn't know I'm doing this fund raiser because he is very proud and I know he wouldn't do this on his own. Fourteen years ago he was in middle school and was running to do a long jump. A very distracted adult walked in front of him and instead in colliding with her he stopped instantly and his hamstring popped. He was in excruciating pain so we rushed him to the ER. Many doctors visits later and a ton of therapy and all the doctors thought it was just a pulled hamstring and it would get better in time. Unfortunately no one took images. His Dad and I listened to the doctors and ortho specialists and we thought Tony would eventually get better. Despite the pain Tony had an excellent athletic high school career in track, football and basketball. He was always saying how bad his hamstring hurt through all these years. We honestly thought maybe it was scar tissue that was causing the pain. One of my biggest regrets is not listening more to him and seek more specialists to dig deeper as to the cause of his pain. So after high school the pain continually became worse and he sought out treatment on his own. He found a wonderful specialist in Boston who found the cause of Tony's pain. His hamstring tore and broke a big 3"x2" section of his pelvis off with it. The bad news is that this procedure was out of network. Tony's cost between all the imaging, appointments, surgery, meds, and devices needed after surgery came out to $15,000. The specialist told Tony that she could attempt to remove the bone and reattach the part of the hamstring thats been floating for 14 years. High risk of damaging the sciatic nerve and losing control of his leg was the biggest concern and thankfully the 2 hour surgery took 5 hours and was a success. I wish I could pay for this myself. Tony is just starting out with a beautiful fiance Danielle and has Ellie who is 2 years old. He will be burdened with this expense for many years to come. So I'm asking my family and friends for help. Anything at all that you can spare I'd be eternally grateful to you. Tony had the surgery two weeks ago and is recovering in bed unable to move for one month so his hamstring will stay attached for a full recovery. His payments will start soon for this specialist so I'd love to tell him that a portion or all of his cost will be taken care of by people that love him. Please reach out to me if you have any questions. My email is [email redacted]. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. ❤