Oliver Abrao's Recovery Road

On Saturday, July 1st Oliver was competing in a dirt bike race in a small town in Washington state. During the race, he fell mid-race and as he was getting up got hit by two other riders directly in the head at high speed within a couple seconds of each other. After being flown by helicopter to Randall's Children's (a specialty hospital in Portland, OR, approximately 30 miles from the site of incident) we learned Oliver had a broken jaw on both sides, fractured skull and brain bleed in the upper left side; the worst part of the injury is his severe traumatic brain injury known as diffuse axonal injury (TBI / DAI) which is the twisting of the brain and the brain stem which causes the neurons all over the brain to be damaged. The PICU spent July 1st to August 3rd saving Oliver's life and getting him stable where he had multiple surgeries to his head and brain. Oliver has been in a medically-induced coma since July 1st and is now in the process of coming out of it! He's close to reaching the level necessary to be accepted to the inpatient rehab program! Although he's not fully conscious, he's making progress every week that is normal for this type of severe injury.

The good news is that he can heal and recover. The doctors don't know how high the recovery bar can be, but the healing and rehab process can take 1 to 3 years, and sometimes even longer. We are going to go to great lengths and do everything we can to make sure Oliver is getting what he needs to have the highest recovery bar and least amount of disabilities possible.

We've been reluctant to do any type of fundraiser but due to so many people including the moto community, friends and family that have asked to help, coupled with the life altering nature of the injury that is likely to change Oliver's life, we are setting up this go-fund-me for Oliver's care. A lot of people close to us have given us the guidance that it is okay to let people help us. 100% of the proceeds will be used for advanced therapies, rehab, and/or provided to Oliver through a protected special needs trust that he can use on his road to recovery. If you have a preference on where the money goes, drop us a note and we'll make it happen. A goal is a tough thing to set in this situation, given what we know today and how the US health care / insurance system works for this type of injury, the costs will be hundreds of thousands of dollars to us and million(s) to insurance. So we'll use $121,000 in honor of Ollie's race number.

Additionally, we are so grateful for Ronald McDonald House and we're going to post a separate fundraiser through their platform for their not-for-profit in case people want to help us thank this amazing organization for what they have done for our family. The RMCD House is on the hospital campus. They've taken our family in since early July, and we're likely to be there for some time going forward while Oliver is in inpatient rehab and then when he is lucky enough to do extensive outpatient rehab where you live by the hospital and attend for 4 to 6 hours per day. It is something that will be near and dear to our family going forward. The Abrao family will kickstart that fundraiser with $2,100.

The last thing we want is anyone to feel like they have to donate. Donations are great, but the prayers, support and friendship we've received have helped so much. Thank you all.

With love,

Abrao Family