Support Cole Koppang's Journey to a New Normal

I am Farrah and I'm raising money to help out my nephew Cole Koppang due to a horrific injury to his right arm and hand after getting it caught and crushed in a chain conveyor.

Cole is a strong man with a business of his own, yet makes time to help others with his broad range of skills and abilities. He is a natural leader and visionary. At home he has support from his future bride Brooke and a new baby boy Briggs. Cole could use our financial support as he is not able to work and his fiancée is doing at-home care for him and their little Briggs.

What happened?

On Sunday, October 27, Cole was working on a large newly designed dryer used to dry biomass at the farm. He got his right arm caught in a slow-moving conveyor that pulled his arm forcing it into a small space. His hand was scraped and his forearm slowly crushed and bent. Cole successfully fought to pull his arm out of the conveyer. No one was able to hear or see him until he came around the dryer holding his bleeding arm. With a towel wrapped around him, he was rushed to the local emergency room where they prepped him for life flight to Fargo Sanford to the trauma team.

That night, they sedated him to straighten the arm until surgery Monday morning. Monday, he was in surgery for over 6 hours as they secured the 2 broken forearm bones with 2 plates and 12 screws. Next was the hand, which required a different specialist as the tendons were mangled on the top of his hand. He had sensation in the fingers but minimal movement. Tuesday, he had fevers that postponed another surgery due to infection risk. Wednesday night, they did another long surgery to sew tendons together and stretch skin over the top of the hand. They planned to have it wrapped for 2 weeks. However, 2 days later, it was leaking and causing concern. They opened the wrap and found that skin was not healing as they had expected. Now they plan to open the hand each day and continue "debriding the wound." This procedure removes dead or unhealthy tissue from a wound to help it heal. The previous plans for skin grafting have been changed due to exposed tendons that could be compromised if they are covered. After 9 days in the hospital, he was sent home to heal with his family. He has to go into the clinic each day to care for the skin on his hand and review the benefits and risks moving forward. A wound vac is recommended, but not covered by any insurance. This would allow it to heal faster and likely be wrapped weekly instead of daily.

His ability to use or move his arm and hand are unknown due to damage. In the meantime, we are praying and hoping for the best healing possible with no infections and good results. Thank you to family and friends for the ongoing support!