New York, USA — The family of 16-year-old David Johnson, the Titchfield High School student seriously injured in a May 14, 2024 crash in Portland, which left two of his colleagues dead, is appealing for help as they face a Herculean task caring for him.

Johnson’s aunt Mitchelle Reece, who resides in Florida, told the Jamaica Observer that her nephew suffered serious brain injury, is unable to walk and has since had two stokes which have affected his entire right side.

He has to be fed through a tube and is currently not responding to stimulus. He also has a sore on the lower back of his right side which the family believes he developed while he was hospitalised.

“Both of his arms and feet are swollen as we speak,” the distraught aunt said.

She said that David who spent two months in the hospital was discharged last Tuesday, July 16, 2024. But while the family was grateful for what the hospital did for him, “we are not certain he should have been sent home in the condition he is.

“We feel that he requires specialist treatment in a hospital bed which we are neither able to provide or can afford. In addition, David is scheduled to undergo another surgery in early August,” Reece said.

According to Reece, the family has been told that David will need therapy as part of his recovery, and while they have not been told that attention at an overseas facility could help, “I do believe it would be best for him but again funding would be a major impediment as the family is just not in a financial position to provide for that either”.

She added that the family reached out to two medical facilities in Jamaica, one of which quoted a price tab of J$500,000 weekly to care for David, a figure she said is way out of the reach of the family’s pocket.

They were then offered a reduced price of $300,000 but even that smaller sum was impossible for the family to secure on their own. Reece noted that the second facility that was approached advised that they would not be able to care for David in his current condition.

At the moment David is being cared for by his grandparents, another aunt and a person who has to be paid. A family friend who is a nurse and others have also been volunteering their time, according to Reece.

She added that Portland Western Member of Parliament and Transport Minister Daryl Vaz, in whose constituency the crash occurred, has provided some help with transportation costs.

On the day David was released from the hospital, the family decided to engage the services of a private ambulance to transport him home as they were concerned that the ride in a regular vehicle from Kingston through the winding Junction road in St Mary would be too much for him.

“It is likely we will have to do so again to fulfill his upcoming appointment for his next surgery,” she said.

A member of the Titchfield High School cadet, “David has always expressed a desire to become a member of the Jamaica Defence (JDF) and to get into computer studies,” Reece told the Observer, adding that “he has always been devoted to his schoolwork”.

The student’s plight, which has made the rounds on some online platforms here, has resulted in a member of the Jamaican community in the state of Georgia — who asked not to be named — offering to “see if there is anything I can do to assist”.

A GoFundMe account, which has been set up by the family to raise US$100,000, has so far realised US$14,696 from 330 donors. Persons wishing to contribute can access the account at gofundme.com/f/support-davids-care-and-healing-after-a-tragic-accident