Event Description

Are you Active duty, a Veteran or a Civilian?  Are you looking to ruck, walk or run for a good cause?  Where do you live around the world? Whether you are 2 or 102, you are able to make a difference for Jacob Yoder!

 
Specialist Jacob Tyler Yoder is an amazing young man.  At just 20 years old, he has assisted with raising service dogs for Canine Partners for Life.  He has gone to Honduras as a Short-Term Missionary assisting with construction of medical clinics, church structures and a school.  He has volunteered as a Short-Term Missionary with the Joni and Friends organization to assist as an aid to families and children that are affected by disabilities.  Jacob is also enlisted in the Army National Guard and graduated from basic training in Fort Benning, GA as a distinguished honor graduate, earning an invitation to Ranger School.  
These are only a few of Jacob’s accomplishments.  Although he’s only 20, he’s committed much of his life to public service and helping others in need.  He is truly a selfless young man and has served his community with the purpose to make a positive impact in each life he touches.  

Jacob and his family need our support now.  They need us to come together and help them, as Jacob has helped so many others.  On October 2nd, 2020, Jacob was involved in a serious automobile accident involving a tractor trailer.  He was extricated from his vehicle and rushed into trauma surgery at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware.  Due to the injury, Jacob had to have an emergency craniotomy to remove the right bone flap of his skull, to relieve the pressure on his brain.  As a result of his injuries, Jacob suffered facial fractures and a Defused Axonal Injury of his brain stem. He has had neurosurgery to clear two brain bleeds and his has suffered several strokes during his stay in the Intensive Care Unit.  

During his two weeks in the Intensive Care Unit, Jacob was on life support and the physicians were not sure if he would survive.  Over the next two and half months, Jacob went from an induced coma, to noninduced coma.  Throughout the stay in the ICU, he also suffered with pneumonia and multiple staph infections.  While still on a peg tube and trach, Jacob was discharged to rehab.  Within the week he regressed and had to be moved to Paoli Hospital for surgery.  There he had a Cranioplasty to replace his missing right bone flap that had been removed during his stay at Christiana.  The synthetic bone flap surgery worked and eventually he returned to Rehab.  Jacob regressed again while at Rehab and had to leave again to have a shunt placed to drain fluid collecting at the center of his brain.  The shunt was successful, and Jacob began to wake up again.  

Jacob is now currently in Rehab and requires 24-hour assistance.  Although he’s awake, his is unable to communicate. He is able to follow basic commands and beginning to actively partner with his rehab team to recover.  The road ahead of Jacob is long as he will need to learn everything again.  He will need to learn to walk, talk, chew and swallow, a process that could take years.  

The Yoder Family is starting to prepare for when Jacob returns home.  They currently rent a mobile home that will not be able to accommodate his needs such as a hospital bed, wheelchair, ramps or a handicap shower.  They will also need a vehicle that can transport Jacob to and from his appointments.  

Currently, due to the accident, The Yoder Family only have one source of income, due to a parent needing to stay with Jacob to help take care of him.  

We are asking the community to follow the example that Jacob has set before us.  To be selfless and come together to help those in need, Jacob is in need.