Mike James Fighting to Walk Again

April 12th  my 28 year old son lost his leg. His surgeon was going to try to save it by cleaning out infection but an hour in when his surgeon came out to talk to me - I knew it wasn't good. He found dead tissue and it was full of puss. I had to decide if he should take it now or wait until we told him. The hardest thing to do was sign the consent form basically to save his life by not risking infection going into his body. Life has now changed and we will get through this. I NEED people to rally and help. We are now faced with having to move (I have an upstairs apartment), wheel chair, prothesis, and all of the other unknowns. We need the support of community to help us navigate all of this. As a parent, you never want to have to go through this. We need all the financial support we can get. We will pay it forward once this is behind us. I started a GoFundMe page and am asking for help and people to rally and encourage help. This will get better for us!

Below is how this all started 3/17/2019 : 


Our son, Mike James, needs your help! He recently slipped on ice resulting in a
damaged artery, fasciotomy to save his leg and a  dislocated knee. He has a long road ahead of him to be able to
walk again.

Last Sunday he had an emergency bypass surgery to restore blood flow and an
orthopedic team worked on his knee – this was a six-hour surgery. A week later, he’s
still unable to move his foot but he is extremely lucky he did not lose a leg. Yes, that’s
how serious this was!

Every sign of hope that he will walk again is appearing. His toes are warm and he is
starting to get some feeling back. The doctors say it may take months for him to be able
to move his foot or even wiggle his toes but they are hopeful.

We’re not sure how long he will be at Albany Medical Center, but it could be another two
or three weeks. He has pins and rods holding his knee in place, which from what I
understand will be on for about another two months. From the bypass surgery, he has
two open, very large incisions on each side of his calf. Eventually he’ll need a skin graft
to cover those.

Once he leaves Albany Medical Center he’ll go to a rehab facility for an undetermined
amount of time. He has a minimum of two more surgeries ahead of him. It will be a long
time before he’ll be able to walk again.

Mike’s career as a track announcer and sports announcer was just taking off, and he is
engaged to amazing woman. They’ve had to postpone their wedding to focus on his
healing.

We’re trying to alleviate the financial burden of all this so we can focus on his recovery.
We don’t know what medical expenses he will have as of yet, but he also needs to keep
up with his bills so he doesn’t lose everything. He also needs to find a new place to live
due to the staircase, otherwise he won’t be able to come home.

We don’t know yet what is ahead or how long this road will be. We just know that Mike
needs to focus on his healing and not worry about anything financial right now.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping us get through this. Any amount will
help him!!

Please share this with everyone you know. For those of you who know Michael, he has
a heart of gold, treasures his friends and family, and is very talented. As his mother, it is