Help Jesse recover from accident!
Donation protected
On Wednesday May 23rd, Jesse was on his way home from a mandatory meeting at Harmony High school. Jesse hadn't been to Harmony for some time, as he had spent the previous 2 years doing full time dual enrollment at Valencia College. However, like many 18 year olds, he was excited to be graduating high school that Friday. He was looking forward to graduation, then on to UCF in the fall.
Unfortunately, Jesse wouldn't be able to walk at graduation that Friday. Between 11 and 11:30am, he was riding his motorcycle home from school, stopped at a red light, when a distracted driver struck him from behind at (at least) full speed. The driver was going so fast that it pushed the motorcycle 150 feet, across 2 lanes of traffic. Instead of walking at graduation, Jesse was airlifted to the nearest trauma center.
As the good Lord would have it, I happened to be working from home that morning, but was heading into work with Jesse's brother Luke. On our way to the car, one of Jesse's friends texted him and said that he left right behind Jesse about 45 minutes prior, but didn't hear back from him yet. He was worried, because friends told him about a bad motorcycle accident on Narcoossee Rd, and he wanted to make sure it wasn't Jesse. When I couldn't reach him either, Luke and I sped to that direction.
I distinctly remember my prayer on the way there: "Please, Lord, don't let it be Jesse!". As we approached and I saw the motorcycle firmly attached to the front of the other car, that prayer quickly turned to "Please, Lord, protect my son and let him still be alive!" You see, I rapidly searched the area and didn't see him anywhere. I jumped out of my car and rushed to the officer on the scene. He told me that they already had him across the street in the helicopter and he was being transported to the hospital. They wouldn't let me ride with him, and wouldn't give me any information "on a pending investigation". So I had to spend the next frustrating forty minutes driving 12 miles in traffic to the hospital to even find out what condition he was in. My heart was racing a mile a minute at this point, not knowing if he was going to even survive this crash.
Once I got to the hospital and found the right trauma nurse to talk to, I found out that all they knew now was a list of his injuries "so far":
* Pelvis broken in 3 places
* Broken clavicle
* Broken ribs
* Severe concussion
* Lacerations on the back of his head and on/above his left eye
* Severe bruising all down his left side
Jesse was just about to leave the Emergency Room trauma area, moving over to ICU. We had to wait for what seemed like forever to get another assessment and to find out more information from the trauma doctor who was working on him. Once they moved him and he was settled in ICU, the doctor gave us an update: Jesse was in critical / stable condition, they had to keep him sedated since the airlift, and he was on life support with a breathing tube.
We were finally able to see him. I pray that any parents reading this never have to look down on your children in that shape the way that I did. Not knowing what's next is the absolute worst. Waiting for a second CT scan 12 hours later to find out "if what they saw was a brain bleed" seemed like days. (Turns out it was an anomaly!) Seeing the machine breathing for your child, laying there broken and in more pain than you can imagine is unbearable. Parents: stop reading right now and call/text/go hug your children! I never understood the phrase "life is fragile" until then. However, the Lord gave me just enough strength to get through all of this without totally losing it!
They kept Jesse sedated for almost 2 days due to the injuries and the concussion. They said if he was not sedated that his brain's reaction to the trauma could make his concussion worse. After much work at the hospital and some recovery time, Jesse was allowed to come home. He's got a long road ahead of him, with cognitive therapy, physical therapy (he's learned how to walk using a walker, with us helping), and some time to see how the eye and facial scars heal up. Even through all of this, we're so happy that he is still here with us!! Praise the Lord for Jesse's protection, because it could have gone the other way all to easily.
It seems as soon as you get settled at home and start to plan out the recovery, that's when the other shoe drops: insurance. You see, many people these days drive either without insurance, or in this case, with the state minimum for bodily injury protection. This guy's policy has a $10,000 maximum payout. Jesse's insurance had an "uninsured / underinsured driver" policy. That will provide another $10,000. Well, just the hospital bill alone was nearly $200,000. That's not including the airlift, or any of the doctors, nurses, techs, etc. that don't bill directly through the hospital. The rest will all fall back to my high deductible health care plan, and we'll max out our family out-of-pocket and have to pay that. We thought that receiving funds from the 2 policies above would help with some of that...
Here's where we start to get insurance education really quick: in the state of Florida (like most states) the health insurance company is able to receive all money that you receive from those policies in order for them to recoup the amount they needed to pay. So, not only do we need to pay our maximum out-of-pocket to cover the expenses, but we don't get to receive anything from those policies. We have no idea what the final medical, airlift, and therapy bills will look like, but we know he'll need many months of recovery.
While we're focused on getting Jesse the ongoing care he needs to heal, we have to keep one eye on all of this insurance nightmare.
While setting this up for Jesse, I really had no idea where to start. How much to we set as a goal? I thought I'd start by helping with some of our out-of-pocket medical. I admit it's not including anything for his ongoing therapy, or eventually getting money together for a car now that the motorcycle is gone. (He's understandably too fearful to ride a motorcycle.) I also had no idea what to write. I apologize that this is probably longer than most, but I just ended up telling this story with the hopes that it will help others stay safe. Don't be a distracted driver. That's someone's child driving next to you.
Any of you who know me understand that it's not really in my nature to have to ask for help. However, I also understand all too well what's in front of my family at this point. If you feel moved to support Jesse, we thank you for your generosity. We've had hundreds of friends, family, co-workers, church members all praying for Jesse since they heard about his situation. This type of support is beyond anything I've ever felt, so thank you all for the love and prayers!
If you can't help financially, I'd ask that you please post this on whichever social media that you may use, or send it on to your friends. Please spread this far and wide! It's more helpful than you can imagine, and we're all in this together.
While our family has endured a tragedy, we're looking forward to Jesse's recovery, and feel blessed by all of the love and support. We'll keep posting updates here with his progress. We can't thank you enough!
Unfortunately, Jesse wouldn't be able to walk at graduation that Friday. Between 11 and 11:30am, he was riding his motorcycle home from school, stopped at a red light, when a distracted driver struck him from behind at (at least) full speed. The driver was going so fast that it pushed the motorcycle 150 feet, across 2 lanes of traffic. Instead of walking at graduation, Jesse was airlifted to the nearest trauma center.
As the good Lord would have it, I happened to be working from home that morning, but was heading into work with Jesse's brother Luke. On our way to the car, one of Jesse's friends texted him and said that he left right behind Jesse about 45 minutes prior, but didn't hear back from him yet. He was worried, because friends told him about a bad motorcycle accident on Narcoossee Rd, and he wanted to make sure it wasn't Jesse. When I couldn't reach him either, Luke and I sped to that direction.
I distinctly remember my prayer on the way there: "Please, Lord, don't let it be Jesse!". As we approached and I saw the motorcycle firmly attached to the front of the other car, that prayer quickly turned to "Please, Lord, protect my son and let him still be alive!" You see, I rapidly searched the area and didn't see him anywhere. I jumped out of my car and rushed to the officer on the scene. He told me that they already had him across the street in the helicopter and he was being transported to the hospital. They wouldn't let me ride with him, and wouldn't give me any information "on a pending investigation". So I had to spend the next frustrating forty minutes driving 12 miles in traffic to the hospital to even find out what condition he was in. My heart was racing a mile a minute at this point, not knowing if he was going to even survive this crash.
Once I got to the hospital and found the right trauma nurse to talk to, I found out that all they knew now was a list of his injuries "so far":
* Pelvis broken in 3 places
* Broken clavicle
* Broken ribs
* Severe concussion
* Lacerations on the back of his head and on/above his left eye
* Severe bruising all down his left side
Jesse was just about to leave the Emergency Room trauma area, moving over to ICU. We had to wait for what seemed like forever to get another assessment and to find out more information from the trauma doctor who was working on him. Once they moved him and he was settled in ICU, the doctor gave us an update: Jesse was in critical / stable condition, they had to keep him sedated since the airlift, and he was on life support with a breathing tube.
We were finally able to see him. I pray that any parents reading this never have to look down on your children in that shape the way that I did. Not knowing what's next is the absolute worst. Waiting for a second CT scan 12 hours later to find out "if what they saw was a brain bleed" seemed like days. (Turns out it was an anomaly!) Seeing the machine breathing for your child, laying there broken and in more pain than you can imagine is unbearable. Parents: stop reading right now and call/text/go hug your children! I never understood the phrase "life is fragile" until then. However, the Lord gave me just enough strength to get through all of this without totally losing it!
They kept Jesse sedated for almost 2 days due to the injuries and the concussion. They said if he was not sedated that his brain's reaction to the trauma could make his concussion worse. After much work at the hospital and some recovery time, Jesse was allowed to come home. He's got a long road ahead of him, with cognitive therapy, physical therapy (he's learned how to walk using a walker, with us helping), and some time to see how the eye and facial scars heal up. Even through all of this, we're so happy that he is still here with us!! Praise the Lord for Jesse's protection, because it could have gone the other way all to easily.
It seems as soon as you get settled at home and start to plan out the recovery, that's when the other shoe drops: insurance. You see, many people these days drive either without insurance, or in this case, with the state minimum for bodily injury protection. This guy's policy has a $10,000 maximum payout. Jesse's insurance had an "uninsured / underinsured driver" policy. That will provide another $10,000. Well, just the hospital bill alone was nearly $200,000. That's not including the airlift, or any of the doctors, nurses, techs, etc. that don't bill directly through the hospital. The rest will all fall back to my high deductible health care plan, and we'll max out our family out-of-pocket and have to pay that. We thought that receiving funds from the 2 policies above would help with some of that...
Here's where we start to get insurance education really quick: in the state of Florida (like most states) the health insurance company is able to receive all money that you receive from those policies in order for them to recoup the amount they needed to pay. So, not only do we need to pay our maximum out-of-pocket to cover the expenses, but we don't get to receive anything from those policies. We have no idea what the final medical, airlift, and therapy bills will look like, but we know he'll need many months of recovery.
While we're focused on getting Jesse the ongoing care he needs to heal, we have to keep one eye on all of this insurance nightmare.
While setting this up for Jesse, I really had no idea where to start. How much to we set as a goal? I thought I'd start by helping with some of our out-of-pocket medical. I admit it's not including anything for his ongoing therapy, or eventually getting money together for a car now that the motorcycle is gone. (He's understandably too fearful to ride a motorcycle.) I also had no idea what to write. I apologize that this is probably longer than most, but I just ended up telling this story with the hopes that it will help others stay safe. Don't be a distracted driver. That's someone's child driving next to you.
Any of you who know me understand that it's not really in my nature to have to ask for help. However, I also understand all too well what's in front of my family at this point. If you feel moved to support Jesse, we thank you for your generosity. We've had hundreds of friends, family, co-workers, church members all praying for Jesse since they heard about his situation. This type of support is beyond anything I've ever felt, so thank you all for the love and prayers!
If you can't help financially, I'd ask that you please post this on whichever social media that you may use, or send it on to your friends. Please spread this far and wide! It's more helpful than you can imagine, and we're all in this together.
While our family has endured a tragedy, we're looking forward to Jesse's recovery, and feel blessed by all of the love and support. We'll keep posting updates here with his progress. We can't thank you enough!
Organizer
Terry Cotant
Organizer
Saint Cloud, FL
