Horrible news - @grayhawk

[Mudisfun 588]

Brothers and sisters Steve aka @grayhawk has sustained what sounds like serious injuries in a freak accident. Info below from an email sent to our association members:

 

Just this morning, Steve stopped by Windrow Park in support of two of our finest working a tournament Semi-final game. While the crew was getting dressed in the parking lot, Steve sat in one their chairs. The chair then broke, which caused Steve's neck to snap back as he fell to the ground. This created some immediate back pain, but did not appear to be serious at the time. Some hours later Steve began to lose all feeling in his legs and arms, and was admitted to Saddleback Medical Center. He is currently undergoing surgery to remove a disc in his back that the Dr's feel is causing the inflammation on the nerves which led to his condition.

 

I briefly spoke w/ Steve and his wife, Christine, just before surgery, and they said assuming all goes well, another surgery will be needed to insert pins & screws. The recovery process could take a very long time.

 

 

I know Steve personally and I know that many of you have formed a relationship with him via this very site, so I know many of you would want to know about this tragedy and would want  to add him to your prayers. @Magic who is also our association VP I am sure is in contact with his family as well. When additional information is available, I am sure one of us will share it....

 

Prayers to Steve and his family.  

[udbrky 294]

 best wishes for recovery

[scrounge 1,243]

dammit, that sucks...please pass on my best wishes

[Richvee 2,158]

Terrible news. Please pass on my best wishes for full and speedy recovery. 

[JonnyCat 162]

Hoping and praying for a fast and complete recovery. I'll echo what MudisFun said, Steve is a great guy. 

[MB_Ump 69]

Worked with a D62 umpire on Sat and he told us this story. Did not realize the who the injured was. Prayers for Grayhawk!

[ilyazhito 16]

That is terrible! God grant him a speedy recovery, and let him return to the field. If not, he might make a good observer/interpreter/instructor instead. 

 

[tpatience 339]

@grayhawk is the one responsible for me starting my umpiring career. He was the UIC for the little league I started with. The good news in this is that he is doing much better after his surgery, doing more light movements every day. We are all here for you, grayhawk

[BT_Blue 1,342]

I'm glad the site membership is now aware of what happened. Steve's wife set up a Facebook group for him to follow his progress and it looks like it is going well.

You can probably message them on Facebook or something like that to send on well wishes.

[Mudisfun 588]

Update sent from our association:

As it turned out, due the seriousness of his condition, his surgeon determined that his best chance for recovery was to immediately remove the herniated disc in the C6-C7 vertebrae of the neck which was pinching the blood vessels in the spinal cord. If not treated aggressively, the loss of blood flow in the tissues of the spinal column could cause severe damage and limit his ability to walk and to perform basic motor functions. The procedure took 6 1/2 hours to perform, and his Dr. did insert rods & pins to help stabilize. The good news is an additional surgery should now not be needed.

 

He is able to move the toes on his left foot, but not the right (though he does have some sensation). His grip with the left hand is strong, not so much with his right and he's having quite a bit of left arm pain that will probably exist for some time to come. Next step is to start therapy and get him out of ICU. I cannot even begin to tell you how much he misses baseball already, but he's focused now on just being able to walk again. The recovery process will long, difficult and slow.

 

He really enjoys having visitors. The only limitations are the # that can visit him in ICU at a time. The hospital policy is 2 visitors at any one time, but the nursing staff is able to stretch the rules a bit as they did today. Also, should you stop in, he may be asleep as he's under constant management for the pain.

 

Many of you have reached out to me wanting to know what you can do. Christine told me that she & Steve feel tremendous strength from prayer. Please continue to pray for them both. He'd also like to see his brothers in the umpiring community for a visit. It has also been suggested that once Steve is able to go home, the OCBOA brotherhood provide home-cooked, or restaurant food for delivery. Christine will certainly have her hands full, and I know the family would appreciate that very much. If you are able to help, please email me and I will keep a list and provide further details when able.

[Rich Ives 1,071]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[BT_Blue 1,342]

@Mudisfun, please keep us posted on here how it's going. I'm on the Facebook group, but it isn't the easiest to follow how it's going.

[Mussgrass 38]

Too bad I'm 3000 miles away! Not too far for prayer though! Blessings!

[BT_Blue 1,342]

56 minutes ago, Mussgrass said:

Too bad I'm 3000 miles away! Not too far for prayer though! Blessings!

Its stuff like this that makes me wish I was still in SoCal.

[Magic 277]

Guys Steve is doing better every day. I just saw him last night. He was hoping to get out of ICU today and into the Ortho floor. If all goes well within 1-2 weeks he will be transferred to a ReHab facility. And that is when the real work begins. He has function and is able to move his left toes. He has feeling in the right side but can’t move anything yet. The right side was the first to go when this all happened, so the doctors said it will be the last to come back. They are hoping for him to be able to move his right side in the next day or two.
For those of you who don’t know, Steve is one of my best umpire friends. We developed a very close bond when we were trying to get into College baseball and have had a similar goal set ever since then. I probably talk to him about baseball at least once a day for the last 3 years. I will tell you one of the first things he asked his doctor is will he ever get back to umpiring. There is a chance, about 30%, that he won’t walk again. I told him, the hell with that. If I have to drive to your house every day, we are going to focus all of our energy on that 70%. I felt like crap after it happened. It was my game he stopped by to watch for a little bit before he was off to his networking meeting. Please keep praying. Post words of encouragement on his Facebook page. Text him if you have his number. He might not respond, his wife is monitoring his phone and is doing the best to keep everyone informed. I will keep popping on and posting updates as we go through this journey with our Brother.


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[conbo61 738]

I am so sorry to hear this.  He is such a tremendous contributor to this site and by all accounts an even better person.

Wishing him a speedy recovery and strength to his family and friends.

[Jakester5112 0]

I just joined this site and don't know anyone here too well, but this is horrible news. Best wishes to him and his family, and I am hoping he gets back to full strength soon.

[BCBrad 76]

Best of wishes of a speedy and full recovery.

Hoping you are back doing a plate meeting soon. 

[Thunderheads 2,690]

WOW!  I saw the facebook page but could never find out what happened ....unbelievable!  Prayers to Steve and his family!  Go get em Steve!  We've got you!

[sthomas13100 30]

Prayers for full recovery. 

[Tksjewelry 407]

Prayer for him, if there is anything a fellow association can do please let us know and we'll get it done.

[Mudisfun 588]

Latest update on Steve from our association:

 

Yesterday, Steve was moved to a Rehab facility in Long Beach that specializes in spinal cord injuries. The Dr's have begun to ween him off many of the pain meds, so they can focus on physical therapy. The short term goal is to regain motor function and strength to his right side. Steve is fighting hard, and he is a personal inspiration to me and many others. This process will be very difficult, long and expensive. Steve had only started a new business some months back, assisting seniors needing placement in care facilities. He is the sole bread winner for the family, as his wife, Christine, has medical issues of her own.

 

Many have asked how they can help. When he eventually gets home, the meal train will begin but that is still some time away. For those that have reached out wanting to provide meals......thank you. If I could also ask for the name of your spouse, Christine will want to recognize her (him) as well. We cannot have enough meal providers, so please email me if you can assist, along w/ your spouse's name.

 

Another way to help, and most importantly is thru financial giving. We are currently exploring creative ways to make this happen and several of of us will meet this week to discuss. Any and all suggestions are welcome from our strong & proud brotherhood, please think about how best to accomplish. It would be great to have your ideas discussed & implemented in the coming months.

 

Steve & Christine are strong in their faith, and though the Lord never gives us more than we can handle, the times ahead will be very trying for the Wanamaker family. Once Steve is able to accept visitors at the new facility, I will pass that information on. But in the meantime, if you have ideas involving finances or can assist in the meal program, please send me an email.

[CJK 160]

Do they have children?  I ask because an umpire here locally is recovering from a year-long battle with leukemia, including radiation, chemo, and a stem-cell transplant.  The advice when somebody tried to set up a gofundme to help him with his bills was that donations would be better served going to the kids, as a college fund, than to the umpire and his spouse.  The reasoning was that insurance, medicare/medicaid, and whatever else would get in line after available funds, so anything given to the family would just be eaten up, whereas money given to the children would actually be available to the family moving forward.

I know there are lawyers and financial advisors who visit here, so maybe they could shed more light on the situation to help you maximize the benefit of your fundraising efforts.

[Mudisfun 588]

Yes, they have kids. 

I will reach out to the assignor who is sending out the updates to the association if a go-fund me or something similar has been established. The association is also organizing a meal train with +/-45 families signed up so far.

[GaryOCBOA 0]

Daughter, 20 & son, 18.