The family of Wasilla actor and children's health advocate Sam Allred, who was injured in a four-wheeler accident early Friday, has established a crowdfunding site to help cover the costs they expect to incur during his recovery.
Allred, who turns 16 on July 8, was driving a four-wheeler with his younger brother, Tom, around midnight when it hit a rock and rolled on Kasilof Beach on the Kenai Peninsula. Onlookers rushed Tom, who was not seriously hurt, back to his family's camp. Sam was transported by air first to Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, where he was stabilized, and then to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, where he underwent surgery.
His pelvis was broken in multiple places. He also suffered broken ribs, fractured vertebrae and a small skull fracture. But the most serious problems may be the damage to internal organs. "When they went in there they found a lot of damage they didn't see when they first assessed him," said Scott Allred on Saturday morning. "He has damage to his spleen, his colon, his stomach, lungs, intestines."
Scott Allred and his wife Angela have insurance but depend on the state's income-based children's health insurance program Denali KidCare to cover their dependent children. Sam has his eight brothers and two sisters. "Denali KidCare supposedly is going to cover a lot," Scott Allred said, "but we don't know exactly how much. And they're telling us that there will be a lot of other expenses on the long road to recovery: time off work, hotel rooms, expenses they don't cover, expenses that are out of our hands."
The fundraising page, gofundme.com/prayforsam, is hoping to raise $50,000 to help cover those costs.
Sam has a kidney disease, IgM nephropathy, that has already cost the family a lot in ongoing tests and treatments, Scott Allred said. The disease and drugs used to treat it have made him permanently short (4 feet tall) and plump, looking much younger than his age.
A video he recorded singing "The Cuppycake Song" went viral and served as a springboard to the creation of a nonprofit organization, Kindness for Kids, which addresses the disease and other children who have it.
Sam has performed several theater roles with Valley Performing Arts and in the recent film "Moose: The Movie."
On Saturday morning, Scott Allred told Alaska Dispatch News that Sam's condition remained stable but critical. "He's in a lot of pain," the father said, "but he's communicating. He's talking to me today."