Drew's Recovery

As many of you know last month my Nephew Drew, was viciously attacked by a dog. Drew is blind, autistic and he lacks the ability to control and regulate hormones in his body, this is a rare disease called Hypopituitarism. This is and has been a very traumatic time for our family, especially for Drew and Justin. Drew was taken by ambulance to Allegiance Health in Jackson, then transferred by ambulance to Mott’s Hospital in Ann Arbor. There he had a nearly four hour emergency surgery, he needed 200+ stitches between his forehead and his chin. The incident did not happen at home, Drew was with someone that helped watch him sometimes. She told Justin they were going to her house to see a puppy; we had no idea an adult dog would be there.
Luckily my Dad was near by picking up Drew’s younger brother from the bus stop and was able to make it to the house Dettman rd. as Drew was being put in to the ambulance. Drew’s younger brother had to see all of this and to watch his bleeding brother be put into the ambulance. There was an animal control officer as well as a Blackman Township Officer on the scene. As all of this was going on the animal control officer handed my Dad her card and asked that he contact her (we had no clue she wanted us to contact her within 24hours). Drew was in the hospital four days, during that time we did not ask questions about the incident, we just wanted Drew home. Drew has had to go back to the emergency room twice for this, he sees the surgeon once a week until his next surgery. Every week they cut skin from Drew’s face in attempts to help the wound heal. All these appointments are in Ann Arbor, Justin only has my parents to help, I don’t know how anyone can do all of this. We know Drew will have more surgeries, we know this is hurting Drew in many more ways than the wounds on his face.
The one worry we did/do have is how the medical bills will get paid, the hospital informed us the bills would not be immediately sent to the insurance company. We asked our family friend and lawyer to ask the homeowner for his homeowners insurance so we might be able to file a claim.
This is the point where everything changed!
The homeowner, became irate and refused to give his insurance information and began placing all blame on Justin and Drew. He said that this was all Drew’s fault that Drew through a fit, threw a phone and kicked or hit the dog, we still don’t know which, kick or hit The animal control lady couldn’t even tell me, I have that on camera too. The homeowner claimed this provoked the dog to EAT a chunk of Drew’s forehead, rip his chin off and bite the hell out of Drew’s chest. On Friday the day after Drew was released, Justin and I separately had very emotional and negative conversation with the animal control officer, whom supposedly did her job.  She refused to take a statement from Drew because “they” (autistic people) can’t remember stuff from day to day, so it was not worth it to her. She based this off of her family member that is autistic, apparently “they” are all the same. I have this all on video, ask me and I’ll show you. She said she did her job by completing a bite report and since Justin had time for a run around Ann Arbor the morning after Drew’s surgery, he had time to call her, mind you she had Justin’s phone number the entire time. She went to Facebook for this information and where she got pictures of Drew for her report. We had to wait until the following Monday to meet with the Supervisor from Animal Control and discuss all of this. This meeting went a lot different, we were told that the animal control officer would be suspended for her actions and a new officer would take over. The new officer interviewed Drew and attempted to talk with the homeowner, the homeowner refused and gave them his attorneys business card. The caretaker and her boyfriend spoke with animal control over the phone and stated they would provide a written statement explaining the attack, but that was a lie, they will not speak to animal control any longer. In order for us to find out what any of the report says we have to file a Freedom of Information Request and wait who knows how long until it is sent to us. The only thing we do know, is that at some point the dog barked and jumped on Drew, Drew did get upset and the caretaker called Justin so he could speak with Drew over the phone. Justin had no problem calming Drew down over the phone, approximately 10 minutes later she called Justin hysterical because Drew was attacked. We don’t know if Drew was sitting or standing, we don’t know where the dog was, was it next to Drew, was it laying on the floor, was it across the room? How could it do so much damage before anyone could help Drew? We know NOTHING because they will not tell us anything!!!! Can you imagine being blind and having a dog bark and jump on you, can you imagine having a dog tare your face off and not know what is happening or why? Can you imagine if this was your child?

Due to Drew's many sensory issues we are having a hard time keeping him from irritating his incisions. This is requiring around the clock care because he tends to wake up throughout the night and scratch his stitches. This has gotten to the point that he is at risk of infections and even more surgeries.
Insurance will not cover at home nursing care so Justin is going to have to hire someone out of pocket. This is on top of the multiple trips to U of M every week for his appointments. Any assistance will go toward hiring someone to assist with Drew's care.

It is very hard for our family to ask you for help, financially or otherwise. We greatly appreciate your consideration!

Love,
The Hawley's