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Media Contact: Hunter Valmont
(904) 249-5775
hunter@huntervalmontpr.com

Public Invited to Medical Care Fundraiser at Heritage Landing Benefiting Injured Son of D.R. Horton’s Eddie Crosby

Jacksonville, FL — March 11, 2009 — Sometimes in life, the most innocent of acts can have devastating results. Following what appeared to be a lighthearted round of backyard wrestling with a friend, 27-year-old Chris Crosby, son of D.R. Horton veteran sales consultant Eddie Crosby, fell and sustained a traumatic upper-cervical spinal cord injury that instantly paralyzed him from the neck down on January 2.

Organized by family, friends and real estate industry colleagues of Eddie Crosby, a barbecue fundraiser is being hosted by the group to raise much-needed medical funds for Chris, who is without health insurance. The group is pleased to extend to the public an open invitation to the barbecue, with proceeds going to the Chris Crosby Supplemental Needs Trust Fund. Donations also are gratefully accepted.

From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 21, guests will enjoy a delicious barbecue lunch for only $5 per plate. To-go box lunches also are available for purchase. The event will take place in the field by the tennis courts at Heritage Landing at World Golf Village in northern St. Johns County.

“We are desperately trying to raise enough money to send Chris to Shepherd Center in Atlanta,” said Patti Starr, director of closings for D.R. Horton. “He has been at Shands Hospital in Gainesville since the accident, where doctors said that it is unlikely that he will ever recover any movement. We do not believe it. The family has witnessed Chris move his toes and hands, and we all are encouraged by his positive attitude and actions. It is imperative that we get him to Atlanta, otherwise the doctors are recommending his placement in a nursing facility.”

According to Starr, had Chris been insured, his health care provider would have covered his medical costs of rehabilitative treatment at Shepherd Center. The Crosby family of Lake Butler, FL instead must cover the costs as out-of-pocket using any proceeds received through collective fundraising efforts.

Shepherd Center is a private, not-for-profit hospital devoted to the medical care and rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injury and disease, acquired brain injury, multiple sclerosis and other neuromuscular problems. For more than 30 years, it has been instrumental in helping people through some of the most difficult and life-changing experiences imaginable.

Following his life-saving surgery by University of Florida (UF) surgeons, Chris now has the distinction of being the very first person in the state to receive the same implanted electronic breathing device as that of late actor Christopher Reeve, who underwent implantation as an experimental medical procedure in 2003. Chris Crosby also is the earliest after-injury patient in the world to receive the device.

The lightweight, battery-powered diaphragm pacing system was approved by the FDA last year and is designed to help ventilator-dependent, spinal cord-injured patients breathe without external assistance. The UF College of Medicine team used the NeuRx DPS developed by Synapse Biomedical, Inc.

Surgeon Raymond Onders, M.D., from University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Ohio, instructed UF trauma medical director Lawrence Lottenberg, M.D., and trauma surgeon John Armstrong, M.D. during Chris’ surgery.

“Today marks a major breakthrough,” said Lottenberg, leader of the UF surgical team in a Shands Health Care press release published March 9. “Though the procedure is straightforward, the possibility that it can partially or completely liberate someone who is otherwise 100 percent dependent on a ventilator to sustain life is of monumental significance.”

After receiving critical care from the trauma center’s multi-disciplinary experts, Chris has spent weeks in the Neuro Intensive Care Unit being treated by UF neurosurgeon R. Patrick Jacob, M.D., and a team of specially trained, critical care UF physicians and Shands nurses. According to Jacob, diaphragmatic pacing is the best-available option for many ventilator-dependent patients with traumatic injury to their upper spinal cord.

“Our ultimate goal is to help decrease the patient’s reliance on a ventilator in order to help reintegrate him back into his own home and community,” Jacob said. “Even in the face of paralysis, freeing him and his caregivers from the costly and restricting ventilator will bring us one step closer to giving him some part of his life back.”

Donors wishing to make a financial contribution to the Chris Crosby Supplemental Needs Trust Fund should make all donation checks payable to: Sterling D. Colee, Trustee of Chris Crosby SNT. Donations must be directly mailed to Bank of America, 2 Old Kings Road North, Palm Coast, Florida 32137 – Attention: Deidra Miller. All donations are greatly appreciated. No donation is too small.

Heritage Landing at World Golf Village is located in North St. Johns County. From I-95 south, take World Golf Village Exit 323. Travel west on International Golf Parkway. Turn right onto SR 16 West; bear left at fork and travel to SR 13. Turn left onto SR 13 and travel south approximately two-thirds of a mile. The entrance to Heritage Landing is located on the left.

For more information, please call Patti Starr at (904) 509-4829, or email ladystarr831@yahoo.com.

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