Tony Schmidt

Hi, my name is Jenny Koenig and I am raising funds to cover medical expenses for my dad's recent accident.

On April 11, Dad (Tony Schmidt), volunteered to accompany Miranda & I as we travelled to Louisville, KY for a volleyball tournament so he could keep me awake during the drive and spend some much-needed quality time together with a couple of "his girls" as he would say.  Thursday was mostly just travel, but we did stop at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana for a really nice lunch at their farm to table restaurant. On April 12, we watched Miranda's FC Elite 14 Blue team kick butt on the court winning all 3 matches.  

After the games on Saturday, April 13th, since it was beautiful out, sunny & 70+, Dad & I decided to duck out of the hotel room around 4:00 PM to do a little sightseeing.  Dad's ankle had flared up since we got to KY, so walking much was really hard for him.  Everywhere we went, we saw the Bird scooters that were available to rent.  Most of you know that Dad has had Parkinson's for the past 10-15 years already so I was nervous how his balance would be on the scooter.  But, on a recent trip to Nashville, he mentioned how stable the scooters were and easy to get around.  So, he suggested we rent the scooters, which sounded like a blast to me as I've never ridden one.  We rode for 45 minutes and they were super stable. I watched Dad go over manhole covers and potholes with ease. 

We had a great time scooting around Louisville enjoying the sunshine and checking things out.  We stopped at the Slugger Museum and some nice folks took the picture I posted in the account of us in front of the giant bat!  We scooted around a bit more...made it to about 17th street and decided to turn back.  For those who don't know, the scooters state all over them they aren't to be ridden on the sidewalk, so we were riding in the bike lane on the street.  At home, I avoid riding my bicycle on a lot of roads because it just doesn't feel safe.  Here in Louisville, there was some traffic, but it was never concerning, and I felt completely safe.  I was more worried someone would open a parked car door when we weren't paying attention and we'd run into it.  About 13th street we stopped to figure out where we needed to go.  Our hotel was on 4th street, so Dad told me to take the lead and we started off.  I believe we had just crossed 11th Street when I thought I heard something behind me. I took a quick peak over my shoulder and didn't see Dad so I came to a complete stop, turned around and saw him lying in the street.

I never saw it happen and certainly didn't see the car, but a bystander on the street told me multiple times that a black vehicle caught the back end of Dad's scooter, hit it, and then kept on driving.  When I reached Dad, he was already unconscious, but unresponsive and bleeding from his head.  

Local EMS staff were on the scene very quickly (hats off to them).  They worked on him for what felt like forever and then we rode the ambulance a few blocks to the U of L Hospital.  In the ER, I waited for again for what felt like a long time, but certainly wasn't, before I was able to see Dad.  The doctors and staff confirmed Dad had a serious brain injury that was their foremost concern.  Before things got too much worse, they decided to do brain surgery.  They removed part of his skull on the right side, removed the blood clot, cleaned things up and then did NOT replace the skull for now.  The idea is to leave room for swelling as the brain tries to heal itself.  The did the surgery very quickly (I think maybe an hour or so.)  During the same time as all this was happening, a huge thanks to Tom Schmidt for picking up my Mom and driving her to Louisville.  They arrived around 2:30 AM in Kentucky by which time Dad had settled into his room in the ICU, heavily sedated and recovering.