Ocean Academy Student to Undergo Spinal Surgery Tomorrow  

While the Cayo community has come together to support the families of the traffic accident victims, over in Caye Caulker, there’s another heartfelt fundraising effort underway. This time, it’s for the Ocean Academy High School basketball team members who were injured in an accident two Fridays ago. The tragic incident in Orange Walk claimed the life of seventeen-year-old Alex Bainton and left many others injured. However, there’s a glimmer of hope as one of the severely injured students, Gilbert Tec Junior, is showing signs of improvement. Although he’s still in a coma, reports indicate positive signs of recovery with upper body movements. Gilbert, who also suffered a severe spinal injury, and another student need surgery and intensive care. Fundraiser Lee Vanderwalker shared that while the teacher involved has already undergone surgery, the road to recovery for the students is still ongoing.

 

Via Phone: Lee Vanderwalker, Organizer, Fundraising Drive

“ We got the teacher to Guatemala City, he had his surgery and he’s recovering now. It’s going to be a long road for him. One of the students that originally they thought he only had a broken foot, it turns out he has like a fractured vertebrae in his spine, so he’s been accepted by the Shriners Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and while that’s an awesome thing, his parent that goes with him still has a lot of costs that has to be borne. And so, essentially, the remainder of the funds that I had raised is going towards that three to six month-trip for – the young man’s name is Javon – and for his father to go and be with him while he has spinal surgery so that he can regain mobility. Right now, he has a cast on his foot and he’s in a very serious back brace that he cannot take off. One of the reasons why Gilly’s family is really too busy to talk right now is that he’s not really come out of the coma. However, they do believe he will, and they’re scheduling surgery on his femur.  So that he’ll get his femur repaired tomorrow. And then in the meantime, they’re working on getting him accepted into a treatment program in the U.S. through another one of those hospitals that accepts foreign patients, but then it’s also going to be the issue of which parent goes with him. They’re going to have their expenses to bear also. So, the fundraising is ongoing and it’s going to be ongoing for a while.”