Family Seeks Help For Plainfield Man Injured In Car Accident

Plainfield IL

03 March, 2021

4:00 PM

Description

PLAINFIELD, IL — A young Plainfield residents life completely changed after an accident last month, and now his family has up a GoFundMe page to help with his medical expenses. Anthony Ortega was on a vacation in San Antonia, Texas, when he got into a "horrific" accident on Feb. 14, said his mother Tabatha Ortega. The car he was in flipped multiple times, "leading to him completely breaking the lower vertebrae in his lower and middle back," she said. This incident happened during the "worst snow storm of Texas since the 1980s," Tabatha said, and it was hard for police and ambulances to get to accidents. So, a good Samaritan drove Anthony to his aunt's house in San Antonio, and she then drove him to the hospital. "He was in surgery for eight hours and has nine incisions, two rods and 10 screws put into place to stabilize his back," she said. "He is currently still in the hospital trying to recover and regain the strength to walk again." Tabatha said the driver of the car was an acquaintance and Anthony was not aware that he did not have car insurance. The Ortega's have HMO health insurance, and she said a lot of her son's care will not be covered since it will mostly be out of network, which includes all the follow-up care while he is in Texas. Not only will the GoFundMe help with his medical expenses, but they will also help make his life more comfortable once he is back in Plainfield. Due to the severity of his injuries Anthony will be off work for a long time. "He is a roofer and after major spinal surgery the doctors are saying he can't do any manual labor for a minimum of a year, if at all. He will always be in some kind of pain and will most likely have trouble when it rains and is cold from the hardware in his spine," Tabatha said. "Anthony's life will forever be changed. It is a miracle that he was not paralyzed in the accident, but he has a long journey ahead of him." The campaign is asking for a donation of $5,000 and as of Wednesday, the family has collected $2,000. Tabatha said they cannot travel back home till the end of March and would like to be able to collect as much funds as they can within the next few months. Anthony attended Plainfield South High School and according to his mother, he was "loved by everyone there." She said her son is known for his kindness and his ability to help those in need. One thing Tabatha especially admires about him is his way of "making people laugh even in hard times." His desire to put the needs of others before himself was apparent when despite his own extensive injuries, he was able to pull himself out of the wreckage and carry his cousin — another passenger in the same car — on his back. "The hospital said it is a miracle that Anthony was able to pull himself out of the vehicle on his own," Tabatha said. "His cousin also has a neck and back fracture, but luckily they were stable, and he did not need surgery and was able to return to Chicago right away. The doctors said they don't know how Anthony picked his cousin up off the ground. They said it was a miracle that he was not instantly paralyzed." The Ortega's are not thinking about taking any legal action against the driver. They just want to help their son who is always there for others. "Anthony is the type of person who would give a stranger the shirt off his back and could really use some help until he can return to work, and to ensure he gets all the medical care he needs," Tabatha said. To help Anthony, visit his GoFundMe page here. For more news and information like this, subscribe to the Plainfield Patch for free. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here. Don't forget to like us on Facebook!