Show Up for Gasko the man who shows up for others

Hi, my name is Adam and this guy in these pictures is my stepdad Jason William Gasko. Many of you who know Jason all have various stories about him from all times and points of his life, all with many of the same underlying attributes, he is loyal, he is caring, he is loving, he is brave, he is strong, he is opinionated (sometimes bull-headed as my mom says), he is fun, and adventurous. The man you always want with you in any situation. What I can say is in the 7 years I have gotten to know Jason, since he started seeing my mom, he is all those things and more. He is THE MAN. What I mean by that is that he is the man, that stepped up when no one asked him to (especially 12-year-old me) but I can never express how thankful I AM that he did. He appeared in our lives and was in the role of Man of the House the way “they” all say should be. He loves my mom in a way I have never seen anyone do. He calms her when she is freaking out about something stupid, but he also has made her life full of excitement and adventure. He encourages her to be herself no matter what it is and makes her feel loved in all the silly dorky mom ways she chooses makes her happy at that time. And he just rolls with it cause as Jason says nothing is that big of a deal if you are not getting shot at or blown up. I have heard endless stories of crazy completely off the wall situations with his friends, family, and all his army ‘brothers’. Everything from world wind Multi-country European “weekend leave passes” to Endless Road marches, to crazy road trips cross the county or cross the country. From falling flat on his face after being tripped on his first ambulance call, because if you are trying to rush through something you are going to mess it up. Slow is steady and Steady is fast. I have sat thru more then my share of ‘talking to’s ‘because the most annoying way to punish a kid is to take their time, because you can take the Staff Sargent out of the army, but you can’t take the army out of the Staff Sargent. At 20 years old he spent a week volunteering 9/11 site. He then enlisted full-time into the US Army. He served 8 years in the Army and did 3 tours overseas. He was part of the first wave into Iraq. He has lost many dear friends and family, but thru it all he is one of the first calls, when things are going sideways in your life, because HE SHOWS UP. Jason will never be able to accept it or take the acknowledgement of it, but Jason is a Hero. He is a friend, a son, a cousin, nephew, fiancé’ and my stepped-up DAD. Now I am asking for everyone to show up for him, and my mom. And help them.

On November 15th of 2023 Jason was in a bad car accident. He was rushed to the nearest Trama center in Scranton PA. He spent over a month in the ICU on a ventilator. A complete list of his injuries from head to toe; an overextension of his C-spine (neck)., tore the upper spinal column and was leaking spinal fluid, fractured right lower eye socket, broken nose, shattered liver, lacerated the upper GI tract, broken ribs, bilateral collapsed lungs. dissection of descending Thoracic Aorta, broke his T5 to T7 (thoracic spine), fractured pelvis, fractured right hip joint, shattered both kneecaps. In the past almost 2 months, he has had 7 major life saving surgeries. And one failed attempt surgery to fix his thoracic (middle) spine. He has no memory from the day of the accident until 12/19/23. On 12/11/23 they switched him from a mouth vent to a trachea vent. 12/18/23 they started to ween him off the trachea ventilator. 12/19/23 his memory restarts. 12/20/23 he started being able to speak again with assistance of a trachea valve, and he was able to propose to my mom on her birthday (because nothing stops a Rakkasan from completing his mission).12/22/23 he was moved out of the ICU and to the PCU (progressive care unit) in the Scranton hospital.12/23/23 he under-went an additional muscle graft to cover an exposed artery in his groin.12/28/23 the trachea tube was removed completely. And then on January 4th he was moved to James J Peters VA Medical Center in Bronx, NY. To start an aggressive physical therapy and rehab.

Jason still has a long road to recovery including additional surgeries to repair his thoracic spine, and months if not years of various therapies. He is slowly regaining sensations from his waist down, but currently still has paralysis and to his lower half of his body and left arm. He will not be able to come back to our rented home and he and my mom need to find a new place to live that is handicap accessible. As well as many unforeseen medical and life expenses. Jason will probably not be able to go back to his job and unfortunately, he did not have any type of short term or long-term disability coverage, so we went from a 2-income household to a 1 income household all while rent, utilities and regular essentials are ridiculously expensive, and new unforeseen medical and life expenses keep popping up.

So, I am asking all of you to help, and ‘SHOW UP’ for Jason, like we all know he would or has shown up for you. Let’s help this hero complete his mission and come home to his family and soon to be new wife, and get back to a productive, happy life that he has earned. All funds raised will help Jason and Jessica find a new place to live, and to get it move in ready for when Jason powers his way back to us and any expenses he needs covered to start his ‘new normal’ life with his new wife and family and friends.