Help a Family Cope with Unexpected Tragedy

Life has recently taken a dark turn that I wasn't prepared for and has left me so overwhelmed. My husband, Le'Aire, was in a horrible car accident several days ago. It has been so hard to not breakdown, but I just can't let that be an option.

On June 6, 2023, around 4:30 p.m., my husband left our apartment with his arms full of water balloons in an attempt to catch the kids with a sneak attack as they all walked to the pool. I hadn't even realized that two hours had passed when I was contacted by a wrecker service that had recently picked up my car from an accident, not even a mile away from our home. I immediately asked about the condition of the people involved, and he said he only knew the driver went to the hospital by ambulance. After calling Uber for a ride, I proceeded to call all the hospitals in my surrounding area, and none of them were able to find him in their system. I went to the larger hospital closest to me, and by the time I got there, they had him entered in the system.

He is currently in the ICU with a tear in his Aorta Valve, a collapsed lung, Broken Ribs on both sides of his body, and Kidney damage. He was alert and talking on Tuesday night, when the accident occurred, as well as all day Wednesday. He had 100% Oxygen through the nose tube, along with 100% Oxygen through a mouth mask on top of that, but his Oxygen kept dropping below 88% and even below 85% at times. They made the decision to sedate him and put him on a ventilator on Wednesday evening.

Unfortunately, his body kept fighting against the ventilator, and they have since had to induce a coma with paralytic medicine. They have been proning him, which is turning him over for 16 hours to exchange the amount of oxygen his lungs absorb vs carbon dioxide. After 16 hours of pronating, they turn him over to his back for a period of 2 hours because his body does not tolerate being in this position any longer without his oxygen saturation dropping. They are not able to check if the tear in his Aorta and heart valve has healed because his kidneys are in such bad shape that the contrast needed in the blood stream for the CT scan could put him in Renal Failure. As of right now, the main concern is that his lungs are not absorbing enough Oxygen into his blood vessels. They are watching that closely, as well as his blood pressure for the tear in the Aorta.

As if the health of my husband and his ability to recover were not enough, we now have no active income coming in. A week prior to his car accident, my employment contract ended, which was earlier than expected. Le'Aire had a job interview scheduled for Thursday after the accident for a second job. He loved his family enough to work two jobs, allowing me enough time to find something that I would enjoy instead of rushing into just anything and being unhappy. We have two beautiful teenage daughters who are feeling his absence through the lack of laughter and teasing in our home. I also have a son who lives a little over an hour away from us with his girlfriend. They are blessing us with our first grandchild in November. Le'Aire is just so excited over this baby—maybe even more excited than anyone else is—and can't wait to be called "Nonno". 

I never imagined I would have ever created one of these pages, requesting help from people that may not even know me, especially when I don't even like asking anyone that knows me well for anything. It is hard to step out of your comfort zone, but this is the hardest. I just don't know how to be there for my husband, whom I love dearly, keeping myself from breaking down with so many erratic emotions, including the fact that rent and other bills are coming due within several days to a couple of weeks, not to mention the fact that I no longer have my own transportation, no family other than my husband within an hour away, and let's not forget that I have to job hunt on top of all of this. It's a lot, and I am so scared that this is the one time I won't be able to make it all magically work somehow. It's just not possible. Then, when he does start healing and is discharged, I will become his full-time nurse. If anyone has made it to here, I truly appreciate you taking time out of your day to read about my situation, and if you do find yourself wanting to help my family in our time of need, please know I am forever grateful.

 -Lori R.