Help Get EMT Chris Kusielewicz Mobile & Working!

I’m Janina Kusielewicz, and I’m humbly asking for your help to get my brother Chris a car adapted for amputees so that he can reclaim his independence.

Chris was born with spina bifida, a birth defect where the spine doesn’t form properly. His first years of life were spent in hospitals and rehabilitation centers, recovering from numerous surgeries to repair his spine. Chris endured so much pain and isolation throughout his young life and wasn’t expected to live past age 21. Our Mother pushed him to be able to walk, to keep trying and striving. Now 50, Chris has defied the odds again and again.

While growing up, my little brother was frequently excluded from social events and teased by other kids. From the beginning, he inspired me because he rarely let these negative experiences get him down. He was always smiling, making friends, and trying new things. When I look back on our childhood photos, he always has a smile. To this day, I am amazed at how positive he can be despite seemingly endless challenges.

One lasting complication of his spina bifida is that Chris is insensate (lacking physical sensation) from the knees down and his feet didn’t develop properly. Even so, Chris has never let this physical disability hold him from living a full and productive life. He learned to walk with braces and made it through school and graduated from college with his associate's degree. He eventually trained as EMT and became a master scuba diver.

Chris held various tech and “fast track” patient care roles in the Emergency Department of the Hackensack hospital system. Simultaneously he helped hundreds of people as an EMT and later became Lieutenant of the Hackensack Ambulance Corps. He continued to work as an emergency room tech for 22 years and even studied to get his nursing degree.

Chris thrived in the fast-paced demands of the emergency room, helping people at the most vulnerable moments of their lives. His colleagues at the hospital revered him for his dedication and efficiency in the job.

But in 2012, his health started to turn for the worse: Insensate feet are prone to developing issues, including swelling, foot ulcers, and other injuries. These injuries occasionally prevented Chris from working for days or weeks. Then during a diving trip in 2014, a wound on Chris’s right foot became so severely infected that he had to be airlifted back home. Subsequently Chris endured years of varying treatments, IV antibiotics, and dozens of surgeries to try and clear the infection from the bone and save his foot.

In 2020, after eight years of fighting, his doctors agreed that a full Below knee amputation (BKA) was necessary. On October 6, 2020, Chris lost his foot, but he was hopeful that the surgery would be successful and he could finally re-learn how to walk with a prosthetic and finally get back to the hard-working life of service as an ER tech that he loved.

Unfortunately, almost two years later, Chris is still dealing with skin infections and needs more intensive physical rehabilitation to learn how to use the prosthetic. However, Chris can’t consistently get out of the house to get to physical therapy (or anywhere else, for that matter). His amputation has left him unable to drive a traditional car.

That’s where you come in. We’re asking for help from our community and his fellow EMS/hospital comrades in raising $41,000 to get Chris a car to be modified for his disability. Here’s how those funds will be allocated:

● $27,000 for the car as they are not eligible to lease.

● $12,000 to install adaptive equipment, including hand control, to make the car safely drivable for Chris

● $2,000 for training classes for use of hand controls and other costs to help Chris become more confident and mobile using his prosthetic

Every little bit counts. Even $5, $10, or $20 can help us get closer to our goal of getting Chris back to living a life of service in the medical community. YOU can help him get back to helping others with your donation.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart,

Janina Kusielewicz