A motorcycle accident in October nearly took Paul Whaley’s life.
Now come what are expected to be massive medical bills, and an account has been set up on the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to try to help with other expenses.
Whaley is the 57-year-old son of Zac and Sandra Whaley, who live near Cruger. An electrician in Phoenix, Paul Whaley was riding Oct. 21 on a highway at dusk in Maricopa County, Arizona, when a car made a left turn in front of him, according to his father.
“The driver just didn’t see him,” Zac Whaley said.
The head-on collision was so severe that it totaled both the motorcycle and the automobile. Paul Whaley suffered two compound fractures in his left leg, a broken hip, whiplash, a fractured skull in two places and a brain bleed on both sides of his head.
The skin on his hands and stomach was also ravaged by the impact with the pavement. “His skin was to the point that they had to pull his skin back on and put it in place with pins, staples or something like that,” said Zac Whaley, a retired data processing manager from Delta Electric Power Association.
Paul Whaley spent two weeks in intensive care before being transferred Nov. 5 to a regular hospital room. He is expected to start physical therapy any day.
Although his son has made significant physical progress, Zac Whaley said the cognitive injuries are going to take longer to heal.
“He comes and goes. Some days he’s lucid,” Zac Whaley said.
“He’s had a traumatic brain injury, and it’s going to take some time and some therapy and some work.”
Paul Whaley’s fiancee, Margie Seeber, has set up an account on GoFundMe (https://bit.ly/3qH9e8u) to help him with rent, food and monthly bills. It has a $6,500 goal. As of Monday evening, it had raised $685.
- Contact Tim Kalich at 662-581-7243 or tkalich@gwcommonwealth.com.
