The evening of Nov. 25, 2016, saw 28-year-old Brandon Evans seriously injured in a single motor vehicle accident along Agate Bay Road when his vehicle left the pavement and rolled multiple times out into a field.
Evans was transported to hospital by BC Ambulance and later moved to Vancouver where he was placed in intensive care.
Evan’s grandmother, Debbie Kennedy, said at the time that her grandson had already had “a couple of surgeries” and was “heavily sedated”.
“He has had a few rough times since the accident but we are hoping to be able to get him off the oxygen and breathing on his own soon,” commented Kennedy.
Before the accident, Evans and his partner Sara were taking their four-month-old baby, Luke, to Vancouver every three months for medical care due to a heart valve that was to be replaced.
Evans’ accident came at a time when their finances were already stretched to the limit in covering the trips to the coast with Luke, motels and other costs mounting up quickly.
When Luke’s dad was transported to Vancouver and placed in intensive care this young family was very much in need of some help, and as a result, Evans’ grandfather Shaun Kennedy turned to crowd funding at gofundme.com for help for the family.
His plea was heard, thanks to the generosity of 74 people who pledged to the gofundme site, $9,520 was raised in just two months to help the family.
Brandon is now back home in the valley; this reporter spoke with him by telephone on Sunday.
“I have absolutely no recollection of the accident,” said Evans, “I woke up in Vancouver with no recollection of what had happened.”
He tells of spending 20 days in the Vancouver hospital healing up from a torn aeorta and massive damage to his knee.
Then home for four days, and then back into hospital; but this time Royal Inland in Kamloops for another four days.
Evans is now finally home, recuperating, healing and waiting for knee surgery to repair the damage sustained in the accident. Until then he cannot use the leg.
“No walking around, just waiting to get a date for the surgery to take place,” said Evans.
Baby Luke is also home and doing well.
Evans says the money raised from the crowd funding site was “amazing”.
“A big thank you to my grandfather for getting the crowd funding going,” said Evans, “The money helped with pretty much everything, and especially with keeping the family close when I was down in Vancouver.”
“Thank you to the community for coming together and helping us so much,” said Evans, “To all the people we didn’t know – who we’ll never be able to know – we wouldn’t be able to have come through this without you. Thank you so much.”