On Friday, Jan 17, 2025, life changed in an instant. We received a call that our daughter Katie had a seizure, collapsed, and fell, fracturing her skull and orbital bone. She had massive brain bleeding and was being life-flighted to an area hospital for surgery to “try to save her life.” They ended up relieving pressure on both sides of her head and removed the cranium on her left side. She was in the neuro ICU for days recovering; she was in and out of consciousness. On that Sunday, she returned for yet another surgery on her head. Her husband Jon, and her family remained by her side. As Katie recovered in the hospital, there were concerns over the brain injury and possible permanent deficits. The first few days were scary; as she began to wake up, she slowly progressed. She went from tube feeding to puréed food to now, thankfully, a regular diet. She had 98 sutures removed from her head, with another surgery on the horizon in 6-8 weeks to put her cranium back together. She has worked with physical, occupational, and speech therapy. She is transferring to an inpatient rehabilitation center that specializes in traumatic brain injury for focused therapies over the coming weeks. Needless to say, this will be a long journey.

I am putting this GoFundMe together to help offset some of the medical bills and also to help with daily living expenses while she is not working. It’s going to be a tough journey back; just hoping to ease the financial burden for Katie and Jon.