Zach Gulini on his road to recovery

This fundraiser is to help Zach and his family pay for medical expenses and modifications to Zach’s house when he gets out of the hospital.

 

On June 8th, Zach was in Lake Powell with his family enjoying his time with everyone when he fell trying to get in a hammock on the house boat roof. After calling for medical help Zach had to be transported by boat to the Bullfrog Marina. After being stabilized he was transported to the Price Hospital where they did imaging and had to put him on a Life Flight to have immediate surgery at the University of Utah hospital. Zach had multiple fractured vertebrae and an injured spinal cord at his C6. He starts rehab tomorrow and is excited to start his road to recovery. For those of you that know Zach you know he is a fighter and is going to make the best of this. This fundraiser is the help take some of the financial burden off the Gulini family. Zach is going to need his house renovated to be wheelchair accessible, he is going to need a vehicle to transport him plus so much more. If you know Zach you know he would give you the shirt off his back, no questions asked.

If anyone in this world deserves comfort and some good fortune, it is Zach.

We all know this is just going to be a temporary setback with his positive attitude but we want to make sure he has everything he needs to be happy and comfortable.  Aside from the spinal cord injury Zach has been through the ringer and has always kept a positive attitude. For Zach’s whole story please see below a note from his sister Faye. To top it all off the family also lost their mother in a car accident when Zach was 7. If anyone in this world deserves some extra love right now, it’s my brother in law Zach.

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This is my least favorite view of my absolute favorite person in the world. My big brother Zach. If you don’t love him, it’s because you haven’t met him yet. 

Zach has been through hell and back. When he was 15 he was hit by a car. He spent several weeks in a coma and nearly a year in hospitals and in patient rehabilitation. His accident left him with a severe TBI, left side paralysis, and a paralyzed vocal cord. Life from then on became challenging for Zach. Despite his accident, Zach has maintained being the happiest person I know. His character and personality are unmatched. 

A few years later Zach found himself in another car accident. Zach broke his neck which required a fusion. Another long stint in the hospital fighting for his independence, yet again. 

Fast forward a few years and Zach dislocated and broke his hip snowboarding. By the time the doctors discovered that his hip was dislocated they deemed the surgery too risky. Zach was forced to re learn to walk with his hip displaced. 

In 2017, Zach found his balance had regressed and was having trouble walking. He fell very hard, very regularly but it seemed like natural deterioration considering his history. In addition to his balance, he had trouble hearing. After a visit to the ear, nose, and throat doctor, they discovered that Zach had an orange sized tumor in his brain. Something that would have been discovered much sooner on an able bodied person. The tumor had already completely severed his balance nerve as well as his left side hearing. Shortly after this diagnosis, Zach went into another risky surgery. The few remaining nerves that were wrapped around the tumor were very compromised. The surgery went well and the remaining nerves stayed in tact. Months later we learned that the tumor was growing again. Using Gamma Knife radiation we were able to stop the tumor from growing any more. 

For the past couple years life was good for Zach. However, on Wednesday Zach fell to his back trying to get in a hammock. Zach immediately couldn’t feel his arms or legs. Zach was on the houseboat in Lake Powell so appropriate medical attention was extremely far away. After a boat ride, car ride, and helicopter ride, Zach finally made it to the Emergency department at the University of Utah. There they determined that he had fractured his C6 and his spinal cord was bleeding. Zach went into emergency surgery to relieve the pressure off his spinal cord and fuse the new fracture. Zach currently lays intubated and sedated in the surgical ICU. His expected recovery is currently unknown. 

Despite all of Zach’s misfortune he is still the most positive, upbeat, happy, ray of sunshine. He is my hero, my rock, my big brother. He never complains about the pain he lives in on a daily basis. Zach lives in a world of “cants” “no’s” and “don’t” but constantly forces that boundary outward. He is kind to everyone and is the biggest social butterfly. Zach will walk into a coffee shop and make sure he befriends every person in there before he leaves. 

If you can help in any way our family would be so grateful!