Gina’s Urgent Surgery – She needs our help!
Fundraising campaign by
Aimee Barousse
-
US$990.00raised of $5,000.00 goal goal
No more donations are being accepted at this time. Please contact the campaign owner if you would like to discuss further funding opportunities
Gina's miracle recovery from a traumatic accident:
Read about the original accident and Gina's whole story by clicking here<<
Gina has been through a lot this past year and now has to have urgent surgery to get relief from pressure wounds on her foot, which have been infected 3 times. She runs the risk of not responding to meds & infection getting into her bloodstream. Read on to learn her whole story and how you can help today.
You'll be inspired by her positive attitude and dedication to her recovery to be here for her children, family and friends.
Gina's Urgent Surgery read more details here:
A post from Gina's blog: www.ginaquarles.com
"I met with my plastic surgeon this Monday. We spoke about how he would shape my flap that saved my leg. It will be shaped to look like a normal calf instead of one with a spaghetti squash shape look to it. He will will coordinate with my Ortho trauma specialist as they will be working side by side due to the complexities of the one artery issue. My ortho surgeon will be doing the tendon surgery piece. My tendons under my toes will be cut to allow my toes to lie flat again along with cutting my achillies tendon so my foot will no longer “drop”. While she is in there she will remove scar tissue all around my ankle to enable my foot to touch down heel toe instead of toe only.
Then hopefully my pressure wounds will no longer be an issue. I now have three of them and had to be treated with antibiotics three times since I came home six months ago.
The danger with the infections is if they go unnoticed or become nonresponsive to antibiotics, the possibility of the infection going septic is a serious risk. Basically, the infection would spread into my bloodstream. While I do not thinking about this, it is my reality .
The plastic surgeons fee alone is $2800.00. I have no idea where this will come from, but let’s just say I am praying and visualizing a money tree growing in my back yard!!! Please any of you who practice the power of prayer, this lady needs them. I don’t like asking for prayers for myself, but I have to on this one.
Thank you for allowing me to process all of this here. It allows me to keep my focus exactly where it needs to be and that is, “forward”!
XOXO,?Gina
I cannot allow this to lower my spirits. I will not let it consume me with fear. I am going to practice what I tell others. That is to trust it will work out and? meanwhile believe it will happen:-)."
Please help by donating whatever you can today! ANY amount, no matter how much, is appreciated and will help Gina to have this URGENT surgery! Our first goal is $3,300.
Read about the original accident and Gina's whole story by clicking here<<
| BACKGROUND STORY - As written by her husband, Mike, on Caring Bridge, just after the accident. On Sunday, January 15, 2012, at 9:28 p.m., Gina was in a car accident. She was driving on a dark farm road with no curb and almost no shoulder. I was on the phone with her at the time. She had gotten a little turned around and I was giving her directions to get home. She had called me to be sure she was in the right place. Knowing she was low on gas and didn't have any money with her, I asked if she had enough gas to get home. The best guess is that at that time she looked down at her gas gauge and swerved slightly off to the right of the road. The police report shows that at that time she managed to get back on the road and then over corrected and ended up going down the embankment. The car hit a fence and flipped, ending up on its side. A very observant firefighter on Frisco Engine 601 saw the blacked out car lying off the road as they were driving by and saved a lot critical time by noticing it. Gina was extracted from the car, which took a long time as they had to cut through the roof and cut the steering wheel off. When they were able to get to her, they realized that she had a metal post that had entered and exited her back. They cut it off at the ends and got her on CareFlite to Medical Center of Plano. As we found out later, many thanks are due to the Frisco EMTs who rescued her in addition to the thanks due to Engine 601. Gina had substantial spinal damage, and her spine was in an extremely vulnerable situation. The EMTs clearly did a stellar job of cutting the post, extracting her from the car and loading her on the helicopter without causing any damage to her spinal cord. The officers on the scene would not let me get close to the vehicle, but they and the EMTs did their best to keep me up to date. Since the bottom of the vehicle was facing towards the road, I couldn't really see anything except when they carried Gina across the field to the CareFlite helicopter. Once that took off I headed to the hospital. Gina was sedated prior to removing her from the car. Gina's initial situation was very critical. She had: multiple lacerations which were treated, stitched and stapled as appropriate several broken ribs a metal post (approximately 3/4 to 1" diameter) that had entered her back near the shoulder blade and exited near the bottom of the rib cage. Very fortunately, this post did not enter her ribcage but remained subcutaneous along its path. As was determined later, this post had entered the car through the roof and another post had also entered the roof of the car and exited the floor of the car. The second post did not strike Gina. a grade II laceration to her liver (this is not a major liver injury) multiple transverse fractures in her thoracic and lumber vertebrae (these will tend to heal themselves over time but will be painful during the healing process and possibly afterwards) various other spinal injuries and fractures in the processes of various vertebrae two fractures in her C1 vertebra and substantial damage to the ligaments connecting C1 to C2. This is the area that was the biggest risk. If the spinal cord were severed at this level she would have been unable to breathe, and if it were damaged it this level she would most likely have some form of quadriplegia Severe damage to her right lower leg. Both the tibia and fibula were broken, and there was a wound that was around 6-7" in length and around 2-1'2" wide at its widest point when I saw it in the ER. There was substantial edema in her leg, so it is probable that the width of this wound is much less once the swelling is lessened. Two of the three blood vessels serving this foot were no longer intact (the anterior tibial artery survived), and the existence or extent of any nerve damage to this foot is unknown. They were unable to palpate a pedal pulse but were able to pick it up on Doppler. A right hemothorax (a collapsed lung caused by a pocket of blood in the chest cavity). Initial treatment included removal of the post from her back and basic realignment of the bones in her lower right leg, along with everything else involved with stabilizing her. Dr. Kim was her trauma doctor and was the one who kept me up to date on what was going on, and Dr Sanders, her orthopedic surgeon, was probably involved that night although I am not sure who handled that piece. She was intubated and place on a ventilator, and she was transferred to the ICU around 7:00 in the morning. I will pick things up from there in my next post. |
Organizer
- Aimee Barousse
- New Orleans, US
Donors
- Corrie23
- Posted On Oct 26, 2012
Hi Gina and friends of Gina, I stumbled upon this website when trying to help a friend and was drawn to your call for help. This friend of mine has cancer and recently had a fundraiser with a band that donated their music (there was a cover charge), a raffle and a small auction. They raised over $4000. Another friend told me a bout a fundraiser she went to a few years ago that raised funds by auctioning off pies. There was also a cover charge to get in, and once in, there was all the pie you could eat available. It seems like Twitter along with a site like this could also be a good forum. You could use Twitter to help other people with bits of free information on a particular subject and also highlight your fundraising project. The more followers you get, the more funds you might get. Anyway, those are a few ideas I wanted to share. I don't know what other avenues you have tried, of course. One more thought, if you belong to a church or another large organization, perhaps folks would donate things for a yard sale. All the best to you! Corrie
- Guest
- Posted On Oct 22, 2012
best wishes for a speedy recovery
Donations by check
Update posted by Aimee Barousse at 07:43 amAlso, for those who may prefer to mail a check directly to Gina, please send me a private message. I have her address. Thank you! ~Aimee
Helping to understand this surgery
Update posted by Aimee Barousse at 07:31 amI asked Gina to help me better understand this surgery. Here's an explanation below: From Gina: Yes, the problem is since the surgery on my leg from January, I have developed a ton of scar tissue around my ankle and I cannot step flat like normal heel to toe. I. . . . .
Donors & Comments
- Guest
- Posted On Oct 29, 2012
Sending you love from Burbank...
- Corrie23
- Posted On Oct 26, 2012
Hi Gina and friends of Gina, I stumbled upon this website when trying to help a friend and was drawn to your call for help. This friend of mine has cancer and recently had a fundraiser with a band that donated their music (there was a cover charge), a raffle and a small auction. They raised over $4000. Another friend told me a bout a fundraiser she went to a few years ago that raised funds by auctioning off pies. There was also a cover charge to get in, and once in, there was all the pie you could eat available. It seems like Twitter along with a site like this could also be a good forum. You could use Twitter to help other people with bits of free information on a particular subject and also highlight your fundraising project. The more followers you get, the more funds you might get. Anyway, those are a few ideas I wanted to share. I don't know what other avenues you have tried, of course. One more thought, if you belong to a church or another large organization, perhaps folks would donate things for a yard sale. All the best to you! Corrie
- Guest
- Posted On Oct 22, 2012
best wishes for a speedy recovery
- Guest
- Posted On Oct 05, 2012
GOOD LUCK GINA
- Guest
- Posted On Sep 17, 2012
Blessings for continued progress with your recovery.
- Guest
- Posted On Sep 15, 2012
What a wonderful idea and a wonderful cousin!!!
- Gina Meserole Quarles
- Posted On Sep 15, 2012
Oh my!!! All I can say is thank you to my kind cousin Aimee and to all of you who have donated. I am sorry I have not commented sooner. I just finally set my login info. Between keeping up with recovery, my blog (ginaquarles.com),taking care of my lil 3 yr old Ashley while Mike is working,and keeping an eye on the 14 yr old, Kirsten and everything else I that would take 4-ever to list here I have not had much down time. But I cannot express my Thank you enough to all of you. This has been quite the journey for our family and never ever would I have ever dreamed this would have happened to me or how long and expensive this injury would be. But there is not a price you can put on being spared and to be handed another chance at life. Truly a miracle as there were so many times it was touch and go. But I am very thankful for all of you, I cannot tell you enough. I am sending out virtual hugs to all of you and they are really tight too!!:) XOXO, Gina
- Guest
- Posted On Sep 15, 2012
We are friends of Aime and John's and have experienced similar issues with Glen's dad in the past. We know how important it is to relieve those pressure wounds in the feet. Good Luck, Gina!
- Aimee Barousse
- Posted On Sep 15, 2012
To all who have donated as of today, Sept 15th, thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and donation. On Gina's behalf, I really appreciate it! ~Aimee
- Guest
- Posted On Sep 15, 2012
Love ya hard, hard, hard! Swear to gawd!!
Sending you love from Burbank...