Duan Bush, a 28-year-old Chattanoogan, recalled in a Friday telephone interview that he was driving in the predawn hours of May 22 when he swerved to avoid hitting a dog.
He missed the dog, he said, but lost control of his car, hit a tree and shattered his right femur, kneecap and hip.
“I’d just started (a job) three months earlier,” he said, “not long enough to have insurance.”
Bush said he was hospitalized for three or four days, and “couldn’t do anything for himself” when he was released. He said he had to move in with his mother, but because he’d taken his own apartment just before the accident, he was — and remains — on the hook for the rent, even though he’s not living there.
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Even With Help From Neediest Cases Fund, Bush Facing Long Road to Physical, Financial Health
“I was denied unemployment and short-term disability,” he said. “I’m trying to recover, but I’m also trying to find a way to pay my bills.”
He said that in September, he called United Way of Greater Chattanooga looking for help. He said he got it — not just $1,500 from the Times Free Press Neediest Cases Fund to help with his rent, but a measure of consolation his landlord has yet to offer.
“(United Way was) nice and kind,” he said. “Respectful — mindful of my situation.”
Bush said he has rods and pins in his right leg and hip. He said he’s had two surgeries he can remember and is perhaps halfway through a recovery his doctors estimate could be 14 months.
“I’m going through (physical therapy) right now,” he said. “I’m using a walker. I’m still not ready for a cane, but my leg is coming along.
“I still have a ways to go,” he said, “but I’m just trusting the process.”
Bush may well be on track to physical recovery, but he said the prospect for financial recovery might be even more daunting. He said he doesn’t know when he’ll be able to work again, and in the meantime the bills — especially the rent on his vacant apartment — pile up, despite the help from United Way.
“I’m an active person, a working person, responsible for myself, and all that was taken in the blink of an eye,” he said. “I’ve got no revenue coming in, no financial assistance, and I’m still trying to figure out how to pay the rest of my rent.
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“By the grace of God, I made it out alive. I’m grateful to be here with my son. But my injuries put me in kind of a depression mode. I look at life — I look at everything — differently.
“Sometimes I think I won’t get back to myself,” Bush said, “but I’m trying. I really am.”
The Times Free Press Neediest Cases Fund was started in 1914 by Adolph Ochs, then the publisher of The Chattanooga Times. The fund receives donations from Times Free Press readers, and the money is administered and distributed to individuals and families in need by the United Way of Greater Chattanooga and partner agencies.
Recipients must be working or on a fixed income and be able to demonstrate ongoing stability and self-sufficiency after receiving Neediest Cases funds. According to United Way figures, the Neediest Cases Fund took in more than $57,000 last year.
Contact Bob Gary at bgary@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6731.