The Big Klosowski

North Shore, Oahu

Oahu

Josh the day before he graduated high school in May 2009.

Today is my nephew Josh’s 18th Birthday, and we’re wishing it was under better circumstances. Because of his car accident, Josh is turning 18 today in a Neurological Rehabilitation Facility in Austin, Texas.

There is good news, and plenty of it. Several weeks ago in the hospital doctors hinted that Josh might have sustained an irreparable brain injury that they thought would keep him in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. However, once his vitals were stabilized he was moved to a rehabilitation facility in the hopes that rehab could spark a recovery.

His first day in rehab was mostly uneventful, until his mother stuck his iPod in his ears and boom – there was a spark. That was almost two weeks ago, and major things have happened. Josh is still unable to speak, or walk, but he is gaining some movement in both sides of his body, arms and legs. On good days he can understand simple questions, and as the video below shows – on his first day of being able to eat soft foods clearly displayed his love of ice cream.

VIDEO: Josh and the Ice Cream

It looks like Josh will be involved in heavy rehabilitation for at least 6-8 months, and will then most likely need to be moved into an assisted living style home for another several months, or years, or forever – we just don’t know yet. Chances of having Josh be completely self managed after his recovery are slim, but our fingers are crossed.

The neurologist discussed the recent CAT scan and said there is a great deal of scar tissue which will cause permanent impairments.  He is not certain what the end results will be for Josh.

But with all good news comes bad news. Our family has started receiving the medical bills associated with his recovery, and they are staggering. Just a month of recovery has already run up the tab to almost $300,000. It is a humbling moment to see a single one-page bill come in for $255,000 for a 16-day hospital stay, or a $10,000 bill for a helicopter airlift.

We’ve worked through the insurance coverage, and it appears that the plan my sister had as a teacher in Hawaii only covers 80% of the total costs associated with all of Josh’s expenses, with NO OUT OF POCKET MAXIMUM. Before the accident, she had been applying for a better health plan, but the paperwork hadn’t yet been processed, meaning we are out luck. With any hope we can get Medicaid/Medicare coverage and some disability for Josh soon.

What does this mean to us? Well, my sister and our family is going to have to pay at least $60,000 of the bills already, and it’s only been a month. It’s very likely that this incident will bankrupt my sister completely, and leave the rest of family pretty strained financially.

The other great news is that we built a little chip-in widget for family and friends to make donations, and so far we’ve raised almost $2,000 from some incredibly caring and generous people. Not just people, but absolute angels in the true sense of the word.

I’d like to ask you to pass this blog post and donation widget along to any friends you might know that can possibly help out my sister through donations or getting the word out through Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. This is a case where virtual messages can make a real difference in the lives of real people.

I want to thank you all again so much for all the love and support you’ve shown our family during these times of trouble. I can’t wait to update you all again soon with the progress Josh is making.

Also, for those of you interested in daily updates, you can visit here to see his progress.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joshuasentelle

Josh at Graduation in May 2009

I don’t do things like this often, so please bear with me. My nephew has been seriously injured in a car accident recently. He is currently in the ICU after being airlifted to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin, TX. His condition has just recently become “stable”, but his medical bills and cost of rehabilitation is going to be extraordinary, even with insurance.

On Sunday, September 13th, Josh was involved in a horrific car accident. His car went off the road and careened into a tree.  They were wearing seatbelts, and they had airbags, but it didn’t matter.  The side impact cause Josh and his passenger to collide heads, leaving both young men with severe brain injuries.  Both boys were in ICU in the beginning. Thankfully, Josh’s friend, has been moved to a regular hospital room and will be heading to rehab soon. Josh is still in ICU now and a long way from rehabilitation.  Even if Josh wakes up soon, his rehabilitation is going to take months, if not years.

To say I’m close with my nephew Josh is an understatement.  He’s one of my favorite people in the entire world.  I’ve been there most of his life and I can’t stand to see my strong, 17 year old nephew unable to move or even to speak.  Josh just graduated high school, and started attending Austin Community College this fall.  Things were really looking up, and we hope to see them looking up again.  But first we have to find a way to pay all of the medical bills.

Josh's car after the September 2009 accident.

My sister is a teacher working on a teacher’s salary, and to say the medical costs are overwhelming is an understatement.  Thinking about paying for weeks of ICU treatment, as well as the medical airlift helicopter service that got him to the hospital, and years of rehabilitation is dizzying. Insurance will cover the majority of the hundreds of thousands of dollars this accident will cost, but there are still high out-of-pocket deductibles and major family travel expenses to help with the ongoing care.

I don’t do this often, but if anybody out there can help Josh’s family with a small donation to pay for his road to recovery, I’d sincerely appreciate it.

With the economy as it is, I totally understand if you can’t donate, but if you could at least help us pass along the message I would be sincerely grateful to you.

If you would like to help, please donate through PayPal using the widget below.  It would make a world of difference to our entire family!  Thank you for any help you can provide!

The little plant that could, in Downtown Denver. Click for Hi-Res Image

In case you haven’t been following my Tweets and Facebook posts, I’ve been pretty excited about this project at WorldwideMoment.org for quite a while. It’s a project where thousands of photographers from all over the world take a photo at the exact same moment – a moment meant to inspire peace.

Today was my day to take the photo, and love it or hate it, this is what I thought best represented the concept.

To me it represents finding happiness in unusual places. It’s about starting small and dreaming big (I like to think the flower is hoping to be as tall as the skyscrapers around it). It’s about thriving out of your element.

It’s also just a darned plant in the middle of a crosswalk – so think of it what you will.

I will say that taking this photo was fun. My initial concept involved a pile of dirt in the middle of the road with the flower in it. However, laying down in the middle of a busy street seemed risky enough without trying to plant a flower at the same time. Trying to focus a 50mm 1.4 accurately while lying on your back and hearing the oncoming traffic coming up behind you is definitely an exercise in stupidity.

Funniest part of the whole exercise was hearing a lady on the street corner say to her walking buddy, “That idiot is trying to take a picture of a flower in the middle of the street, and I thought I was crazy…”

But it was fun, and I liked the image, so there. Enjoy!

Lebowski Fest Speed of Sound Tour Invades Denver

Lord. You can imagine where it goes from there.

Denver Achievers unite: the world’s definitive Festival celebrating all things Lebowski is moseying on through your city. With a movie party at The Ogden Theater (September 8th), and a bowling party set to go down at Bowl-ero (September 9th), the Lebowski Fest dudes are ready to see if the Rockies really go just as, errr, high as people say.

“What do you do for recreation?” Maude Lebowski asks The Dude in the film. “Oh, the usual,” The Dude responds. “I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback.” Lebowski Fest organizers have not strayed very far from that formula – much to the delight of Festival attendees. ‘Achievers’ are regaled with two nights of events: various performances and a screening of the movie on the first night; followed by an evening of bowling, replete with wild costumes, trivia contests, unlimited bowling, and what-have-you. The White Russians will be flowing throughout. Abide.

All info can be found at www.lebowskifest.com.

See you there?