Support Ethan Pawlowski

Ethan was a senior in high school looking forward to graduation. He helped coach his brother’s baseball and football teams, worked a part time job, loved video games and hanging out with buddies, helped neighbors shovel snow and carry groceries, and was just full of life and genuine kindness.

On March 10th, 2021 his life changed in an instant. Ethan was on the way to school when the tie rod on his car failed, causing him to lose control and ricochet off of a guardrail into the path of a school bus. The bus could not stop in time and drove over Ethan’s car, crushing most of it and trapping Ethan inside. Ethan had to be cut out of the vehicle and was transported by ambulance to the hospital.

Ethan had a broken wrist, fractures to vertebrae in his neck and shoulders, and significant damage to his brain. Any movement, light, sound or touch caused Ethan’s pressure to spike so we had to keep his room dark and quiet to try and stabilize him as best we could. Ethan was placed on a ventilator, put in a spine and neck stabilizing brace, and put in a medically induced coma to try and give his brain the best chance to heal.

Doctors performed a surgery on Ethan to remove a piece of skull in hopes of relieving the pressure on his brain. An MRI then revealed that there were countless bleeds of all different sizes, bruising, and tears in multiple areas of Ethan’s brain still showing up several days after the accident. Over the next two weeks Ethan was gradually pulled off of the sedation he was under and began showing strong brain activity.

By the end of March, Ethan began the process of getting off of ventilation and starting therapy. He had an amazing team and within a few weeks was able to remove his brace, get off the ventilator, do a swallow study to begin eating food, and on May 4th spoke for the first time since the accident. His first words were ” Mom I love you so much.” Ethan was discharged from the hospital a day before his 19th birthday and has been home ever since. He continues to work hard in physical, occupational, and speech therapies showing a tremendous amount of strength and courage.

We are so thankful for all of the doctors, nurses, caregivers and friends that have helped us through such a difficult time. We know that Ethan has a long, difficult journey ahead of him so we continue to search for every possible treatment option available in order to give him the greatest opportunity for a bright and independent future.

We have recently discovered Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and learned that it has been extremely successful in treating people who suffer from Traumatic Brain Injury. In many cases, it has improved the client’s fine and gross motor skills, speech, thinking (cognition), memory, physical healing, etc. We’ve recently learned that there is a non-profit facility right here in Northwest Ohio that we can go to called Sara’s Garden that specializes in working with clients with traumatic brain injuries.

Unfortunately, in the United States insurance companies do not recognize HBOT as being therapeutic for the treatment of TBI and therefore will not cover the cost for treatments. That is why we could really use your help. HBOT for TBI is only $100 per hour at Sara’s Garden. However, since our plan is for him to receive at least 40 HBOT treatments that cost adds up quickly.

If you could assist us with the cost (or even just part of the cost) of a single $100 HBOT treatment it would help reduce our overall expenses greatly. 100% of the funds received go into an account in Ethan’s name and will be used for his treatments. Any contribution made would be considered a tax-deductible donation as Sara’s Garden is a 501(c)(3) non-profit facility. Checks can be made out to Sara’s Garden with Ethan’s name on a sheet of paper accompanying the check. Please do NOT write his name directly on the check. You can also donate online via credit card by clicking on the DONATE NOW button below.

Thank you so much for considering the support of Ethan’s treatments at Sara’s Garden. Our hope is by being able to receive hyperbaric treatments his recovery process will be even better and he can get back to enjoying all of the things he loved.

The Family of Ethan Pawlowski