Help a Beloved Decorah Father and Prize-Winning Chef Get Back on his Feet

On February 25th, 2020, Justin Scardina suffered a devastating fall at work. With a ruptured aneurysm in his frontal lobe and a vertebra fracture in his neck, he was airlifted from Decorah, IA to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, where expert neurosurgeons saved his life. The severity of his condition required him to remain in the intensive care unit at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester for ten days, followed by an additional week-long hospital stay. On March 13, at long last Justin was stable enough to be transferred to the Inpatient Rehabilitation unit at Gundersen Health Systems in La Crosse, WI, where he remained until March 19. What makes the situation even more catastrophic is that Justin was uninsured at the time of his accident; this campaign is to help ease the extraordinary financial burden of his medical bills and his continuing rehabilitation needs on his long road to recovery.

As a devoted single dad and a prize-winning chef, Justin has dedicated most of his time, energy, and career to caring for others. He is someone who volunteers his culinary talents at various benefits, as he feels strongly about giving back to individuals in need and to the Decorah community as a whole. Having lived there since starting his degree at Luther College in 2000, it would be difficult to find anyone in town who does not either know Justin personally or who has not tasted his delicious cooking. Justin is determined to heal and regain the ability to continue his passion for bringing people together with food and collaborating with his community. Although his long-term prognosis is not entirely clear, Justin has regained most of his physical abilities and is making strides toward improving his cognitive function.