Saturday, April 6, 2013

Ben Wolverton Accident and the Kindness of Strangers

It's humbling to know that we're all just a breath away from disaster, and needing to rely on the kindness of strangers. Sadly, for one of my friends and his family, that breath came on Wednesday.

David Farland/ David Wolverton's 16 year old son, Ben, was in a longboarding accident on Wednesday, April 3, 2013.  After falling off his board, Ben suffered from severe brain trauma as well as a cracked skull, broken pelvis, broken tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drum, as well as road rash and many scars. He is currently stable, but in a coma.

When he was taken into the emergency room, Ben had a 10-15% chance of survival. On Thursday, surgeons removed his skull cap to reduce the pressure on his brain. Today they started planning for the surgery to repair his pelvis and knees. It's a good sign, and the fact that Ben is stable is nothing short of a miracle.

Like many of the self-employed in America, they have no insurance. Dave's a New York Times best-selling author, but medical expenses like the ones they are incurring are catastrophic. The bills for the hospital and treatment in this instance can exceed a million dollars.

I met Ben at the first Superstars Writing Seminar where he was drafted for  (I mean, helping with) the book store, and generally helping where he could. I doubt Dave has ever refused a request for help.

If you can, please help out, even if all you can do is share this link. Please Donate

We're also putting together a Book Bomb for the family with Dave's books Nightingale and Million Dollar Outlines to help out. The Bomb is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, but I'll post when we confirm everything.

Thank you.

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