Caring For Keith
Donation protected
Created By: Lule Dzaferi-Cramer
This story is about Keith Gardner, a married, father of four, and a sheriff's deputy with the Kane County Sheriff's Office in St. Charles, Illinois. Keith has been a sheriff's deputy for 20 years, and he has served his community faithfully & to the best of his abilities without fail. Starting in December of the year 2000 Keith has endured various injuries & setbacks in recovering from these injuries. While performing SWAT training in 2000 he injured his foot which resulted in damaged nerves. The pain from this injury was so severe that Keith underwent surgery & had a spinal stimulator implanted in his back to manage the pain in his foot. In January of 2010, Keith was involved in a physical altercation while arresting a suspect. The altercation injured his back and caused the spinal stimulator to move & no longer provide proper coverage for his nerve pain as it was intended. This event brought Keith back to the operating room to remove the spinal stimulator. Since the spinal stimulator was removed, Keith has suffered constant, severe back pain while trying to manage the nerve pain in his foot by having injections into the damaged nerves. From 2011 to 2015 Keith worked as a School Resource Officer at Kaneland High School. He fostered excellent ties with faculty, students, and the parents throughout the community and was widely praised & appreciated for his dedication & hard work. He also worked as a youth coach coaching football, basketball, baseball, and softball since 2009, forming ties with the children in the community he was sworn to protect. In addition to coaching youth sports, Keith spent the last 6 years coaching high school boys basketball and is currently the assistant coach with the Yorkville High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team. While working to make a difference in the lives of these students, Keith discovered that in addition to the damaged nerves in his right foot, he had 2 additional areas of damaged nerves in his lower back area, as well as a benign tumor in his left shoulder. He has been off work since June 2015 due to these injuries, and he has not received a paycheck from the Kane County Sheriff's Office since August 2015 while his workman's compensation claim was been contested in front of an arbitrator. The arbitrator hearing was completed in January of 2016. He has yet to receive a response as I write this. In April, 2016 Keith went to his doctor because he was experiencing some stomach pain. The CT scan the doctor ordered discovered a mass in his right kidney. Due to the size of the mass, it was recommended that it be removed, and he was advised that there was a 50-75% of it being cancerous. In August of 2016, Keith had a partial nephrectomy to remove the mass and any damaged areas of his kidney. The surgery was a success and he was extremely lucky to find out that the mass was not cancerous. This was however Keith's 11th surgery (9 of the other surgeries were the result of the work injury sustained in 2000 and again in 2010), and it was performed while he was not receiving a paycheck or insurance from the Kane County Sheriff's Office, and only receiving $10 a month as temporary disability benefits. With no incoming paycheck aside from his wife's part-time job, ten dollars a month is all Keith & his family have had to live off of for just over one year. It is because of this that I am creating this fund to try to help a good friend, a good husband & father, a good police officer, and a good person who deserves his community to rally behind him. If you know Keith, you already know that he's a good guy that has a had a tough run of things for a while now because of these injuries. If you don't know Keith, but you have read his story, I urge you to think of his family and 4 growing children that would benefit greatly from your generosity & care. Please open your hearts and Care For Keith in whatever you can, it will give him and his family the help they so greatly deserve. Thank you!
This story is about Keith Gardner, a married, father of four, and a sheriff's deputy with the Kane County Sheriff's Office in St. Charles, Illinois. Keith has been a sheriff's deputy for 20 years, and he has served his community faithfully & to the best of his abilities without fail. Starting in December of the year 2000 Keith has endured various injuries & setbacks in recovering from these injuries. While performing SWAT training in 2000 he injured his foot which resulted in damaged nerves. The pain from this injury was so severe that Keith underwent surgery & had a spinal stimulator implanted in his back to manage the pain in his foot. In January of 2010, Keith was involved in a physical altercation while arresting a suspect. The altercation injured his back and caused the spinal stimulator to move & no longer provide proper coverage for his nerve pain as it was intended. This event brought Keith back to the operating room to remove the spinal stimulator. Since the spinal stimulator was removed, Keith has suffered constant, severe back pain while trying to manage the nerve pain in his foot by having injections into the damaged nerves. From 2011 to 2015 Keith worked as a School Resource Officer at Kaneland High School. He fostered excellent ties with faculty, students, and the parents throughout the community and was widely praised & appreciated for his dedication & hard work. He also worked as a youth coach coaching football, basketball, baseball, and softball since 2009, forming ties with the children in the community he was sworn to protect. In addition to coaching youth sports, Keith spent the last 6 years coaching high school boys basketball and is currently the assistant coach with the Yorkville High School Boys Varsity Basketball Team. While working to make a difference in the lives of these students, Keith discovered that in addition to the damaged nerves in his right foot, he had 2 additional areas of damaged nerves in his lower back area, as well as a benign tumor in his left shoulder. He has been off work since June 2015 due to these injuries, and he has not received a paycheck from the Kane County Sheriff's Office since August 2015 while his workman's compensation claim was been contested in front of an arbitrator. The arbitrator hearing was completed in January of 2016. He has yet to receive a response as I write this. In April, 2016 Keith went to his doctor because he was experiencing some stomach pain. The CT scan the doctor ordered discovered a mass in his right kidney. Due to the size of the mass, it was recommended that it be removed, and he was advised that there was a 50-75% of it being cancerous. In August of 2016, Keith had a partial nephrectomy to remove the mass and any damaged areas of his kidney. The surgery was a success and he was extremely lucky to find out that the mass was not cancerous. This was however Keith's 11th surgery (9 of the other surgeries were the result of the work injury sustained in 2000 and again in 2010), and it was performed while he was not receiving a paycheck or insurance from the Kane County Sheriff's Office, and only receiving $10 a month as temporary disability benefits. With no incoming paycheck aside from his wife's part-time job, ten dollars a month is all Keith & his family have had to live off of for just over one year. It is because of this that I am creating this fund to try to help a good friend, a good husband & father, a good police officer, and a good person who deserves his community to rally behind him. If you know Keith, you already know that he's a good guy that has a had a tough run of things for a while now because of these injuries. If you don't know Keith, but you have read his story, I urge you to think of his family and 4 growing children that would benefit greatly from your generosity & care. Please open your hearts and Care For Keith in whatever you can, it will give him and his family the help they so greatly deserve. Thank you!
Organizer
Shauna Gardner
Organizer
Yorkville, IL