"Fifteen years ago, I was electrocuted . . ."
In August of 1992, my brother (Justin) and I were being boys. I grew up mostly a country boy in SD and CO, riding dirt bikes and playing with guns. The night I turned 14, Justin was driving a car and I was following him on my dirt bike. He ran off the road into a cornfield and pretty much closed his eyes and put his foot down hoping to hit the break, but missed and hit the gas instead. I could see that this was going to end badly and got off my bike. He ran into a telephone pole and the pole fell. As I was running the wire snapped and landed on my head zapping me pretty good. I will spare the gory details but most of the electricity traveled through my body exiting in my left knee, taking a huge chunk out of my leg and paralyzing my left foot. Some of the electricity surfaced around in my chest and slowly burned it’s way out, leaving burns from the inside out on my chest, back and left arm. Most of my organs pretty much got micro waved. I was out for a good five minutes while Justin ran to the neighbors call 911. They already had, so he came back to me just as I was waking and then ran to our house about a mile away to get my parents. When my dad got there I was obviously in a state of shock having no clue what happened and trying to get back on the bike, he settled me down as best he could and we waited for the emergency people to arrive. After a small hospital in Sterling, CO I was sent to a hospital in Greeley, CO for the 1st week and then transferred to the Shriners Burns Institute in Galveston, TX where they took care of me until I was 21. Obviously lots of surgeries (40+ on the knee alone) and recovery but those are the basics.
Since that time I had been pretty stubborn about keeping the leg, always hoping / praying for more to be available in terms of an alternative to amputation. In the past, doctors have not wanted to do a knee replacement for a of reasons: age / maturity, lack of muscle, the foot, but mostly because it just doesn’t make sense. The knee had been changing a lot and I was breaking knee braces every couple of months. The last few times it occurred I dislocated the knee, and I’ve have to put it back. Anyways, after this last round of seeing doctors, Tara and I made the decision to amputate. This is something that I have thought about every day since the accident and have been trying avoid, but as pain dramatically increased, it was time. I saw one doctor that was willing to do a replacement, but his estimate at best would only last 5-8 years with the replacement, and more than likely I’d be faced with the same decision, it would solve the pain problem, but not give much more activity. The amputation opened so many other doors for activity making it the best decision.
Limbs are expensive and insurance companies are allowed to cap the amount that they will pay towards prosthetics. We are attempting to raise $40,000 to purchase a leg. Because prosthetic companies do not finance the cost for limbs they require the amputee to pay up front by whatever means necessary. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. I am not expecting anyone to give a large sum of money. What I am doing is sending out a shirt as a thank you for any donation of $25 or more that says "This Shirt Bought Tarver A Leg." We're in the process of setting up a non-profit organization to help other amputees buy their prosthetics after I've raised enough to buy my own (we're told the process can take up to a year.)
Donations can be made through my Paypal link, which will give me your info and I will contact you.
Please feel free to link to shirtsforlimbs.com or tell anyone you know about this endeavor. There are links on the site to make it easy to spread the word.
Thank you for your support and prayers.
Tarver
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