On January 19, 2009 Tony Rigsby, who has 15+ years experience using a chainsaw, was involved in a freak accident while cutting firewood for a friend.  While cutting the firewood the chainsaw either hit something in the log itself or somehow kicked back up out of the log and hit Tony in the face before he could stop it.  The chainsaw blade did extensive damage to the right side of his face, hitting from just above his right eye to just below his jaw line on the right side of his face.  Tony had to be taken by Helicopter Life Flight from the scene of the accident in Vermilion, Ohio to a hospital in Toledo, Ohio.  Tony was in surgery for almost 6 hours that day to assess the extent of the damage and to do the immediate repairs that were necessary.

In addition to the surgery on the day of the accident, Tony has had numerous doctor appointments in Toledo and a few follow up surgeries to clean out and repair his eye as best as possible, re-attach his sinus cavities, to replace his cheek bone which was completely destroyed in the accident, and to bring back limited functionality to his eye lid which was badly damaged.  As of August 8, 2009 the doctor’s expect him to have at least 2 to 4 more surgeries for reconstructive purposes, to fix his eye and eye lid.  The number of the surgeries depends completely on what they finally decide to do with the right eye and the possibility that they may be able to restore vision.  At this point we are hopeful, but unsure if he will ever regain vision out his right eye.  The Doctors want to wait until September to follow up on the eye when they will run more tests and conduct further analysis because the eye itself is now visibly smaller than his left eye.  The most likely outcome is that they will have to wait until December 2009 to determine what is to be done and if there is any chance that he can regain his vision.

The problem with all the delays, although they are medically necessary, is that Tony’s insurance company may very well drop his family coverage in August, 2009!  Tony’s current medical bills are well over $300,000 at this point for all of the surgeries.  Some are covered, and some are not.  The insurance company is actually fighting paying for some of the surgeries, the ambulance since he was taken by Life Flight, and numerous other claims.  Tony’s Doctors had to fight tooth and nail just to convince his insurance company to cover the reconstruction of his cheek bone, which they initially deemed “Medically Unnecessary”!  On top of all of Tony’s medical issues resulting from the accident, his wife Crista was diagnosed with a brain aneurism in late 2008.  Although she is in the process of getting a second and third opinion, because it has come out that the machine that did her initial scan may have been faulty, they also have all of those medical bills to deal with.  And in today’s day and age of insurance companies denying coverage, Tony and Crista most likely will not be able to obtain medical coverage for themselves if their current provider drops them because the insurance companies have labeled them uninsurable!

This is why we are planning a fund raiser at AmVets Post 32 in Elyria, Ohio.  The goal of the fund raiser is raise money to help Tony and his family with the mounting medical bills from the accident, doctor appointments, and the follow up surgeries.  

Tony and Crista have been active in both the Amherst and Vermilion areas.  Tony has been coaching Baseball and Basketball teams for almost 10 years now.  They have 3 young children all of which are in the Vermilion School System.