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Help Support David’s Journey

David recently suffered a life-changing spinal cord injury from an ATV accident. His C4 and C6-T1 vertebrae were fractured and his spinal cord was compressed. He is now a quadriplegic. He has begun rehab in Madison, WI and is already making great progress. However, as you can imagine, the care he needs is very expensive, which is why we need your help.

Updates (13)

January 28, 2021

Hi Everyone

Here is an update. It has been way too long. We celebrated Christmas/New Years again, thank God!!

Since Davids ATV accident in 2016, he has had 7 surgeries, many UTIs, been septic and still pushing forward.

His surgeries are as follows:

Nov 2016: Cervical fusion surgery by neurosurgeon 2 rods and 10 screws in his neck

Aug 2018 Baclofen Pump Surgery: David had the implantation of a pump to help with his spasms. His legs/arms and body would spasm irregularly. Especially if we would touch him anywhere or when we would get him up or put him to bed.

Oct 2018 David had a SupraPubic Catheter put in. This is a permanent hole placed right below his belly button. I place a foley tube in this hole that goes directly to his bladder to drain his bladder. Otherwise, I had to cath his every 3 hours through his urethra with a foley since paralyzed individuals have a neurogenic bladder which means they cannot go on their own. David would start to sweat and his Blood Pressure would increase (starting to go into Autonomic Dysreflexia) so we knew to cath him) Now he just carries around his urine bag with him at all times without sweating/bp problems.

Surgery #4:

David had a colostomy surgery. This occurred because there was a hole in his colon that I found when I was doing his bowel program one Saturday morning. Paralyzed people also are on a bowel program. This means they or someone else must place a suppository up their rectum to get them to have a bowel movement once or twice a day. This process is also due to the fact that they have neurogenic bowel so they have to be stimulated to go.

Surgery #5

The fourth surgery was not enough!! This hole caused a major infection that infected Davids tailbone. He then was told to switch hospitals and have another surgery. This time his descending colon was permanently removed.

Surgery #6 August 2019

Davids backside was opened up because pus pockets were found and they needed to be debrided. At this time his tailbone was removed and a large hole was left in his backside so a wound vac was attached.

Surgery #7 Oct 2020

Rectum removed and this opening that was made in 2019 was finally closed. A flap was also made to completely close this up!

Other happenings:

May 2019 David was septic due to cellulitis ...3 blood transfusions..

Dec 2020: David now needs a noninvasive ventilator at home ( sophisticated bipap machine) His breathing is more labored after the last surgery

I have retired now to help care for him. It has been difficult to get consistent help.

July 17, 2020

Hi Everyone

Here it is July of 2020. David has been a SCI survivor for 3.5 years already. Thanks to all of your support. From the donations we were able to get the adaptations in a van for David to drive. We have been able to pay for medical supplies and caregivers.

David had 3 surgeries last summer (2019). He had part of his colon removed due to an infection that started because of a hole in the lower part of his colon. This infection became pretty bad and spread into his tailbone. The last surgery he had, the surgeon opened up and debride the area and removed his tailbone. Today David still has a wound vac to try and heal that area.

Earlier this summer he became septic and was hospitalized due to other infections. He is quite the fighter.

Thank you for your continued support of our family. We appreciate all of you and your prayers.

Guestbook

April 8, 2017

Thanks for the updates it is nice to see how things are going:)

Lonnie and Lanny

December 31, 2016

David, Like the overtime game in North Crawford believe and you can climb mountains. We are thinking of you and sending you nothing but hope and good wishes to you and your family. Keep your chin up and God Bless

Lonnie and Lanny Knoble

December 29, 2016

Making a donation for Dave from Jim & Heather Krupke -

Jim Krupke