Hello -

My name is John. Having never done this, I'll just start and go from there. I have always believed in the power of healing through positive thoughts, prayers and deeds. I am not sure what any of this does, but I am hopeful that all my time in our personal lives and through our work has made the world a better place.

We do not live extravagantly, our two cars (I'll get to that in a minute) are 30 yrs old & 11 yrs old. Which has been fine by us because we keep them up to date and with maintenance and running well enough not to worry about breakdowns.

A short bio on myself. I am a 40+ year veteran of the entertainment field working in the theater/film/tv industries.

We have had a good life and I am fulfilled with a life partner that also exhibits the philosophy of "nothing more than just what we need."

The nitty and gritty of all this I have been involved in a major accident on February 1st, 2023, and we have exhausted all of our savings, money borrowed from friends and family, we are unfortunately tapped. I am not in a position to work again for quite a while, 4+ months at least. Workman's comp does not payout that much and we have been slowly losing all resources over the last several months.

My accident was caused by a single bucket man lift, over 8' tall that goes up 32' with 2 crew members, upon moving the lift, it tipped over, shattering his leg and tearing up his arm while pinning me down for nearly 1 hour. They had to hydraulically lift the genie off of me.

The extent of the accident lacerated and ripped open the left wrist, fracturing the wrist, causing nerve damage to the hand and fingers, torqued the shoulder and put the left hip out of place. In addition to breaking the lower leg in half, my Tibia and Fibula snapped, puncturing through the skin, also displacing a large section of the broken shin bone in a large upside down triangle shape. There are several other abrasions and puncture points. Not so much fun for someone who is used to climbing ladders, walking around on high catwalks, loading and unloading broadway touring trucks, hanging lights, moving sound equipment, building set walls and pieces, loading and shooting with camera gear - you get the idea. Now, I have rods, plates and pins all over many of his moving parts and just getting on my feet again and actually moving with a walker and a cane. 

My previous days, as has been for years, were usually 6-7 days a week, 60-75 hours per week of work. I have personally built 15 theaters across the country from the ground up and worked on 1000's of projects.

Here's is my linkedin account for further research on my jobs- https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnlantprod/

We are in the process of selling the 30 year old Toyota, given to us by Joan's sister when we lost everything in Hurricane Sandy, yet another tale, and that should net us a small amount, and we have been selling anything we can to make up for differences of personal items.

My ask is for help, since I am no longer employed and the only insurance we have is the workman's comp, we do not qualify for medicaid, rental assistance, or food stamps, because the WC is $300 more that the 2 person household monthly income level. We can't move because we do not have the money, and the 13 year old car, has a lien on it, with a huge interest rate. We have consolidated our debt payments to 1 per month, but even that has a huge interest rate, but has gotten us off the credit card payments we have been using.

We have cut back on ALL non-essentials - Cable (completely), Internet (back to basic), Cell service to essential only.

Yes, we have retained a WC lawyer. There is not much more they can do at this point, and cannot comment about a personal injury lawyer at this point since we do not have one yet.

The plan for the 4 month money supply is to continue to pay our back and current bills (we have only made a partial rent payment for July), allow us to get very low cost medical insurance, pay the PT deductibles and additional costs for copies of medical records and x-rays (who knew NOT covered by WC), gas to go back and forth to the orthopedic doctors in Long Island (we live in NJ), and of course a little more substantial food than the local food pantry provides.

We are told that potentially to recover to a nearly full workload, it can take more than 1 year with these injuries. I will have to permanently keep in the rods, plates, and pins, so the TSA will be fun. 

We are thankful for all the help that people and the local church have given us, but this is what everyone told us was a next step in charity and help, and this seems like the only outlet now.

With the most sincere and humble considerations. Any amount helps, even paying for gas to the rehab center. Below are some graphic images of some of the results of this accident. 

We are gracious for any help that can be donated and thank you for your time. Peace and light.

Humbly,

John and Joan