Andrew's Story

This blog was made for my good friend, Andrew Allen.

I will introduce myself first. My name is Kimberly. I have opened this blog in order to help Andrew through this difficult time. Not only does he need help financially, but he needs it emotionally too. I am running this blog as a friend and not gaining anything from it monetarily. Any money donated goes directly to a fund set up just for Andrew. I have been friends with his mother since grade school. Her name is Angie Allen. They live near Pittsburg, PA. He was paralyzed from the neck down on Dec. 05, 2012. He is only 18 years old and has already been through more than any of us will ever have to endure. In the early morning hours of Dec.5th, he fell 2 stories from his apartment complex balcony due to a faulty railing. He broke his neck, fractured his skull, and broke his back. He has had many surgeries because of this accident. He was on life support for 6 weeks. His surgeries were on his brain and skull, his back, and his neck. They removed his C5, C6, & C7 disks in his spine and replaced them with rods and a steel cage. His neck surgery lasted 19 hours. He also injured his ear drum, which they had to remove. So Andrew can only hear out of one ear now. They also had to remove a portion of his brain. His brain surgery lasted 15 hrs. The good news is he does not have brain damage, but he does have quite a bit of memory loss. He also had to have back surgery to fix his broken back. This surgery was another 6 hours in the operating room. The doctors had him in a medically induced coma for a week due to all the trauma he had to go through. He is currently on a treache and a ventilator to help him breathe. He will probably have to stay on these for the rest of his life because he cannot clear his own secretions and he can not breathe on his own. His diaphragm is also paralyzed.

He is currently in Children's Institute of Pittsburgh hospital. I also have set up a care page for him there too. I am still working on it, so I will post all information on it in a different post. Here is the url for the carepage. http://www.carepages.com/carepages/AndrewsFight2013#

  He has been going through some rehab. He is shown some improvement. This is a picture of him the other day. It was good to see a smile on his face.

He has been depressed since he has woken up. He still is not able to speak because of the treache but he knows he is paralyzed. The doctors do not know how affected his speech will be. Only time will tell this. His mom, Angie has had alot of stress as well. Her life has competely changed now too. She has been there by his side since the accident.

Any kind of support for him and her both would be greatly appreciated, whether emotionally or monetary. They need words of encouragement too. I have added a chat box to the right of the blog so you can leave them an uplifting comment to make him feel better. Please, no mean comments from anyone. Be respectful when posting. These comments will be read to Andrew and hopefully he will be able to read them one day too. Due to his injuries, he is now a c5 quadriplegic. He is paralyzed from his neck down. He will not be able to walk or use his hands. He will have to have 24 hour care for the rest of his life. He will not be able clothe himself or feed himself. He does have medicaid but there are so many other expenses that medicaid will not cover. This is a huge change for him and his family as well. Taking care of him will be a full time job for his mom too. This is making it even harder for her because she is not going to be able to work and care for him at the same time. I am asking for any kind of donation to help this family out. The doctors have said Andrew will be released from the hospital in 12 weeks. Right now they are in need of help to move and a handicapped accessible van. Since they live on the 2nd floor, they have to find a handicapped accessible apartment to live in. She does not have savings to do this with so she really need help. I am trying to raise enough through this blog to help them move and to put a down payment on a van that can transport Andrew to and from the doctor and rehab sessions. Angie would also love to hear any advice you may have on where to look for assistance or programs for quadriplegics. Like I said before all this is new to both of them. She has done some research for programs but has not found much help. They have a long road ahead of them. I will use this blog as inspiration for Andrew and Angie, as well. I will post updates and pictures of his healing and the recovery process, as well as learning how to live with a disability. Keep them in your prayers too. God is amazing and miracles can happen through prayer. We all have hope!

Please become a follower so you can join us in his journey! To donate money in any amount, click the PayPal button to the right. Please pass this blog url around too and let's get the word out to help this family! Thank you for taking the time to read and follow this blog.