Support Travis Mielke’s Road to Recovery

Hello my name is Landry Low and I’ve created this campaign on behalf of my boyfriend, Travis Mielke.

If you have not yet had the fortune of knowing Travis Mielke, the lucky community of people who have will all tell you that his hard-working, openhearted, positive, goofy personality kindles fast friendships with those who are blessed to cross his path. He is a beloved member of the Cosanti Originals family, a lifelong athlete and competitor with the perseverant spirit of a champion, and the person you can always rely on for support, encouragement, or a fantastically animated story.

Travis’s ability to turn an unfavorable event or experience into a riveting, side-splitting tale of resilience and fortune is one of the many reasons I became so quickly enamored with this magnetic man.

Like so many of Travis’s best stories, this one unfortunately starts off with a bleak beginning.

On the rainy Sunday of January 21st, 2024, we made our way to his aunt & uncle’s house for pizza with the family. As we turned from Cactus Road onto the SR-51 southbound on-ramp, his tires hit a wet patch and we began hydroplaning. While attempting to avoid hitting the car on our right, his truck spun out and began sliding down the ramp’s gravel embankment, bouncing over the passenger side and onto the roof. The truck continued to roll, ejecting Travis from the driver’s side window, landing on its tires, and traveling across all lanes of traffic until it collided with the highway median barrier, where it came to a final stop.

When we reflect on the accident, we both remark on all of the ways that we were unquestionably lucky, despite what occurred. No other cars or individuals were hit, traffic immediately halted, preventing either of us from being impacted by any oncoming cars, and two of the first bystanders amid the stopped traffic happened to be a surgeon and a nurse who immediately pulled out their kits to begin taking his vitals while we awaited emergency services.

While I was fortunate to walk away from the accident with the most minor of injuries, Travis has a very long road ahead of him, recovering from his. The most major of which include severe spinal cord fractures (T5 and T10) that have left him paralyzed from the chest down, multiple fractures to both sides of his pelvis, 8 fractured ribs, a large laceration to the back of his head, a fractured hand, and an assortment of abrasions and contusions throughout his body.

Incredibly, despite the severity of the accident, Travis sustained no injuries to his brain or cervical spine. This has allowed him to retain complete use of his arms, and most importantly, his cognitive abilities. He has been alert and conscious throughout this whole process (including the accident), which has given him the ability to fully participate in the decision-making of his medical care.

In the week following the accident, Travis underwent a spinal fusion (T3 to L1), pelvic surgery, had 13 staples put in his head, a splint for his fractured hand, while continuing to recover and receive treatment for his other injuries. After 6 days in the ICU at John C. Lincoln hospital, he graduated to the trauma floor to continue healing until he’s ready to transfer to an acute rehabilitation center, where he will go to work on forging the enhanced routines and physique that will serve as the bedrock for his road ahead.

We will continue adding regular updates to this campaign as he progresses.

100% of donations received will go directly to Travis and his family to cover the medical expenses and upgrades needed to aid his transition into his new body and life.

The most immediate goals include equipping Travis with:

If you or someone you know would like to contribute in other ways besides donating to this campaign, please feel free to reach out to me or Travis’s family directly. We welcome any resources, guidance, information, &/or support that anyone is able and willing to offer ❤️

Through all of this, Travis has remained characteristically Travis…still yelling at refs on TV for their terrible calls, still effusively loving, gracious, and respectful to the people around him, and still brimming with motivation to out-perform every metric and expectation placed before him.

It amazes me how quickly he has already spun this bleak scenario into one of invigoration, perseverance, and fortitude…and this is still just the very beginning.

Thank you to everyone for supporting Travis and his family as they embark on this long road ahead. I look forward to the future, when we’re all sitting together in a room filled with loved ones, newfound friends, and all the happy tears and laughter that will inevitably accompany his animated regaling of this tale.