A Damariscotta woman has started an online fundraising campaign for a 32-year-old fisherman she knew in grade school.
Crystal McLain heard about the amputation of Jeremy Donahue’s foot while visiting King Eider’s Pub, where the fisherman’s mother works in the kitchen. She said the story she heard was devastating.
“I don’t know what came over me,” she said.
A meeting with Donahue’s mother inspired McLain to start the campaign to raise money for a prosthetic leg.
Donahue’s story began last July, when he noticed a tingling in his right foot.
“It happened so fast,” he said. “I mowed the lawn. It was about 90-degrees. My foot was ice cold and the rest of me was sweating.” He went to his primary care physician at Wiscasset Family Medicine.
“They couldn’t find a pulse in my right foot,” he said.
After months of examination and treatment, doctors still cannot give a reason for this. “Vascular disease is what they tell me.”
Donahue, who has always been healthy and never took medications before this, must now take several prescriptions including the blood thinner Coumadin.
“They say I might be on that the rest of my life,” he said.
Donahue spent most of August at Maine Medical Center. In the first of three surgeries that month, a wire was inserted into a blood vessel in his groin.
“That was wild,” he said. “I was awake for all of that.” The second surgery was an attempt to move an infected vein. When he went under the knife the third time, doctors removed his foot and lower leg, from midway down the calf.
He spent a month at New England Rehabilitation Hospital of Portland and continues to be treated there while preparing for his new limb.
“I have MaineCare,” he said. “If I didn’t, I don’t know if they would have actually done the surgeries.”
He said his six-year-old son was deeply disturbed by the sight of his leg after the amputation.
“Then he saw I was taking it pretty good and that changed his demeanor,” Donahue said. “There’s no sense crying over spilled milk.”
Donahue said he has been told by friends and family that MaineCare would not cover the $10,000 – $25,000 cost of a prosthetic limb.
Department of Health and Human Services Director of Public and Employee Communications John A. Martins said MaineCare covers prosthetics, but that prior authorization must be given before delivering the service in order for a physician to be reimbursed for the service.
Donahue said a fall in late October aggravated his healing leg, causing swelling that postponed treatment.
“I thought I’d really messed myself up,” he said
Donahue works as a sternman on a lobster boat, work he has done since completing high school.
“I was doing my apprenticeship to get a captain’s license,” he said. “I was 40 days short.” He said he is reconsidering that but found it hard to imagine how he would adjust to life off the water.
“I think it would be dangerous to run my skiff with a fake foot,” Donahue said. He said a prosthesis can be made using stainless steel and his captain has already offered to take him back as sternman next summer.
Donahue said he had no idea about McLain’s plans.
“She’s a very nice woman,” he said.
“I had never done anything like that before,” McLain said. After hearing about the situation, she went online and found an organization that works to support fundraising for medical needs. She has advertised her effort on Facebook and Twitter and, by the end of October, raised three percent of her $26,750 goal.
If MaineCare covers the cost of the prosthesis, McLain said Donahue would still receive a check that he could use to cover his costs.
“He’s not going to be able to go right back to work,” she said. “He has to learn to walk over again and how to work on a boat. It’s still going for a really good cause.”
She said one prosthesis would not last Donahue’s lifetime and that his work with bait and salt water might mean he would need a second prosthesis for times when he is not at sea.
“Any help we can get to pay bills would be a great help,” Donahue said. “I was pretty much the primary income.” He said his condition makes it impossible for him to drive his manual transmission truck or help his one-year-old daughter get down the stairs.
“It’s all been so sudden that I feel clueless with it all,” he said. “It all happened so quick. There were no warning signs.”
Donahue said one good thing has come from his loss.
“Even though they said they were 99 percent sure that smoking didn’t cause it, I did quit,” he said. “It’s too bad it took that to open my eyes.” He said he felt fortunate that the clot was in his foot and not his lungs or heart.
“In spite of the fact that I’m broke and this is prime time to earn money, life is good,” he said. Donahue said he appreciates the time he has with his family.
To learn more or donate to McLain’s fund for Jeremy Donahue visit the website giveforward.com/jeremydonahue or call McLain at 563-2741.
