Roger Overton

In late 2012, Roger landed his dream job as a solar field technician with Nextera Energy working at the Genesis solar field in California. On his way to work on May 6, 2014, his tire blew, his Prius flipped over, and he suffered an incomplete C3 injury leaving him paralyzed from his shoulders down. After three months of full paralysis, Roger has gained some motor function in his legs and arms; he lost about 40 pounds and his recovery has been slow and painful.

Through ventilator weaning, recovering his voice, and just now, nearly five months after the accident, graduating to eating pureed food, he continues to focus on getting back to work someday at the job he absolutely loved. As his wife of 25 years, I am hopeful for his recovery, but I recognize that while insurance covered his acute stay at inpatient hospitals, his release to an outpatient setting will require a great deal of effort, equipment, time, and money–not to mention that I am trying to hold on to my editorial job at the same time. Even with insurance, Roger will have many uninsured injury-related expenses such as: rehab and temporary housing, along with co-pays and deductibles.

Roger and I (and our two big dogs Chaco and Zuni) will be staying in Phoenix for at least the next year and cannot return home to the California desert as there are no appropriate rehab centers nearby. Roger’s biggest hope is to recover enough strength to get a job back at his old plant–any job he is able to do–while his recovery continues for months and maybe years.

To help with the financial burden of Roger Overton’s uninsured medical and living expenses, a fundraising campaign in his honor has been established with HelpHOPELive, a trusted nonprofit organization that has been providing community-based fundraising guidance to patients and their families for more than 30 years. All donations are tax deductible, are held by HelpHOPELive in the Southwest Spinal Cord Injury Fund, and are administered by HelpHOPELive for injury-related expenses only. Please consider a contribution today and click the DONATE NOW button.

Thank you for any help that you can offer.

Sincerely,

Gail Overton
[email protected]
603.305.4756