Please help Eric get back on the trail…

My 19 year old son Eric graduated H.S. last year. He plans on taking over the family business as a Landscape Architecht/Contractor. He's been working along side his dad for the past few years, and is a very hard, detail orientated man just like his dad. Eric is also an avid hiker and snowboarder. He has been planning for the past 2 years to hike the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine. Everyone who knows him knows how excited he's been, looking forward to this adventure. He wast o take a year off before attending College; he was to leave March 2013.

On Nov. 1st, he and his dad were cutting up large trees that had fallen during Hurricane Sandy. In a split second, Eric's life would be changed forever. One of the larger trees snapped back and hit his left leg just below the knee like a baseball bat. I got the call from his dad that he was being airlifted to the nearby trauma center. Thinking that he had a compound fracture and that it would be 'pinned' and we'd be home the next day, quickly became a nightmare. Yes, it was an open fracture, but as the bone came through the skin it also took out the blood supply. As the trauma Docs examined him quickly, we were in shock when we heard the words 'possible amputaion'!! After a 5 1/2 hr. initial surgery, the vascular surgeons removed a vein from his right leg, put it in the left and successfully restored blood flow. Unfortunatly the impact of the tree was the exact area of the main nerves in the lower leg. Eric was in the hospital from Nov. 1st until Dec. 6th. He was undergone 10 surgeries to date, and still cannot move his ankle. He has some feeling coming back, but it is still not known if he will regain enough use to live his life to the fullest. He has taken the hardest route; as he wants to try and keep his own leg obviiously. He knows it is still a very real possibility that he will have to make that terribly choice of losing his leg....only time will tell.

I held the family insurance through job, which I lost 2 years ago. I have been struggling every month paying for insurance out of pocket, to now find that it barely covers anything!! I have been told that they pay ZERO dollars for the $19,800 MediVac helicopter, and thats only the tip of the iceburg. He will need another surgery in about 8 weeks to perform a bonegraft. 

Any donations would be so greatfully appreciated to help with these medical bills...one less thing to be on our shoulders. I want this incredible young man to be able to have the best doctors needed to help him re-gain use of his leg, NOT a doctor that some insurance company tells us to use. He has the best now and I certainly don't want to switch in the middle of this very long battle. Thank you so much in advance for your caring donation.