Please Help Wyatt Overcome His Injuries

Hi, my name is Dana, and I’m trying to raise funds for my 15 year-old son, Wyatt, who suffered horrific injuries, on 6/13/24, while trying to help me mow and clear brush from our property in preparation for the dreaded fire season.

Wyatt has suffered open fractures and dislocations to four of the toes on his right foot besides severe trauma and lacerations that cut clear thru the bones on some of his toes and completely shattered the bones of others. He is unable to walk at this time.

I took Wyatt to Shasta Orthopeadics to see an orthopedic surgeon on 06/17/24. They took more X-rays of Wyatt’s foot and found he has actually suffered more fractures and damage to his foot and toes than what the hospital thought.

The good news is, the doctor says he thinks he can save Wyatt’s toes/foot. He said Wyatt has been incredibly lucky thus far. The bad news is, he may not have function of his right toes/foot and a bone infection is a HUGE possibility right now…especially since the ER did not take him to surgery and clean the wounds out like they should have when I took him to the ER last Thursday. The doctor said they should have called him immediately when this happened and cannot understand why they did not. He was not happy, like us, with the “care” or lack of care Wyatt received.

To give you an idea of the horrible care he received in the ER, we were initially told at the ER that he would be going to surgery within 3 hours to have the wounds thoroughly cleaned to reduce the risk of infection and try to save his foot. I truly believe that due to our lack of insurance things suddenly changed, because when the surgeons assistant came down to see Wyatt he got a face sheet that gave his insurance info and never fully examined Wyatt saying, “If we take him to surgery we’ll just lop those toes off and you won’t be wearing flip flops anymore,” and walked out of the room. I chased after him and asked him how he could say that since he didn’t even examine Wyatt and was he the doctor. He answered no and said the surgeon would be down later and disappeared refusing to give me his name. Next, the ER doctor let us know that the surgeon had canceled without warning and wasn’t going to come down anymore and the plan had been switched to cleaning the wounds in the ER, sewing the wounds up and hoping for the best…which the ER doctor gave a 25% chance of his toes/foot not needing amputation(s). Wyatt was discharged home after more than 8 hours with no future plan or direction from the ER, except for a prescription for antibiotics and pain pills (that I had to ask for) and being told to get to a specialist ASAP without a referral. (After asking where to take them they did put the same doctors’ name on a new discharge sheet but his office would not return my calls when I was desperate to get him somewhere after discharge. The first 3 hours he was given an IV, pain meds, labs drawn, and prepped for surgery but nothing was done for his foot and I had to ask repeatedly for the IV antibiotics that should have been given when ordered when we first got there and they refused to give him anything more for pain because “he didn’t look like he was in pain.”

We thankfully got in to see a specialist on Monday, 6/17/24, because the urgent care doctor I took him to on Friday morning wrote a stat referral for Wyatt after seeing him and a dear family friend that works for an orthopedic group who we hand carried the referral to that was able to get us in. Thank God. They were truly an answer to our prayers.

The next few weeks are critical for Wyatt to stay off his foot (he now has a posterior cast/splint on), for me to do meticulous wound care of his foot and pray he doesn’t develop a bone infection.

The next 8+ weeks will tell us what will happen long term because the wounds have to “scar/fill in” and the bones have to hopefully heal without infection. We won’t know what kind of function he will have until he can get past the danger of infection and heal. He has a very long road ahead of him.

I am embarrassed to ask for help, but I am willing to do whatever it takes to give Wyatt his greatest chance for his best possible outcome. I was laid off from my job 3 weeks ago and was already really struggling and taking care of my disabled elderly mom prior to this happening. We are going to lose our home but I will not lose Wyatt. Wyatt needs and deserves to have the best chance he can get.

I am trying to raise funds to care for Wyatt, have enough gas to get him to/from appointments, the ability to purchase necessary items for his wound care, medications, pay for medical bills, specialist care, a knee scooter or something for him to get around when he is finally allowed, and anything else he so desperately needs to try to overcome his injuries that I am unfortunately unable to pay for at this time.

Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading this, God bless you and thank you, in advance, for helping and praying for Wyatt.

Please keep Wyatt in your thoughts and prayers…