To the Friends of Johnny Garro Murrillo

On September 29, 2007, Johnny Garro Murrillo and Leonardo Vargas Cambronero, two of the most special people and assets to our program in Costa Rica, were involved in an car accident in Chomes, Costa Rica, which is about an hour from San Luis. While Leo escaped with only minor injuries, Johnny suffered spinal injuries, fracturing his L4 vertebrae, and has been in critical care in the hospital since the accident. Bone fragments were lodged against his nerves and it was determined on October 15th that surgery was needed to prevent nerve damage and possible paralysis. Upon hearing of the accident I went down for a week to do what I could do. When I left on the 12th of October, the final prognosis was not yet in. At that time they were saying that he may not need surgery. I left feeling in high hopes.

While Costa Rica has a great National Health care system, which is essentially free, the system is slow. The doctors said it may be one to three months before they could schedule surgery. Of course, this was unacceptable to me. With this news we managed to find a private clinic (Clinica Biblica, San Jose) and a doctor / surgeon specializing in spinal injuries, who could perform the surgery immediately. To initiate this an advance payment of $12,000 was required. I convinced the clinic and doctor to put this on my credit card. This card is now reserved to cover all of his future treatment.

Johnny received surgery on October 20, 2007. In the surgery the doctor removed the bone fragments and fused the L4 vertebrae to the L5 vertebrae with 4 pins. The doctor said the surgery was a complete success at that he expected Johnny to make a full recovery. He will need several months to recuperate, and perhaps up to a year before he can do physical labor.

I have set up this web page to help keep Johnny's friends informed, and also to ask for donations to cover his medical and recuperation costs. It is unclear as to what the final medical costs may be, perhaps $15,000 or more. In addition, he will be unable to work for up to a year and will need some assistance to cover his life expenses. I will, of course, cover all of these expenses if need be, but it is a heavy burden for one person to take on. Just as many hands make light work, so can his many friends help to lessen Johnny's burden and to give him peace-of-mind. One thing is for sure, Johnny is a very honorable man. If he feels that I covered this cost on my own, he would feel forever in debt to me. This is a burden I do not want him to carry in life. It is best that he recuperate with peace-of-mind, with the strength that comes from knowing that he has many friends, and that indeed he is part of a very large family.

Johnny and Leo have been an instrumental part of our program in Costa Rica since our first workshop in 2001. They are both extremely intelligent and talented timber framers, always full of laughs and positive energy. Johnny is now 25 and Leo is 21. I am very lucky to count them as a part of my family.

I spoke with Johnny early on October 17th, when the prognosis, and his fate, was still unclear. After three weeks flat on his back in the hospital, his spirits were beginning to decline. He said that he had received a phone call from Tom Jackson, one of the students from the Patagonia workshop last January. Both Johnny and Leo formed a very deep bond and friendship with Tomas. Hearing from Tom seemed to raise Johnny's spirits and emotions. He seemed to have regained his sense of hope, and humor, and in a very emotional and heartfelt way he thanked me and God for the great fortune and luck he had for his opportunity to be a part of la familia Fox Maple.

Thanks to all of you as well for being a part of la familia Fox Maple,

Steve Chappell

Make a Donation

I have set up a link in which you can make donations in increments of $50. If you want to donate more, simply increase the item quantity.
This will increase the total by $50 increments.

Donations are not tax deductible, but may bring you some good karma. All donations will go to pay Johnny's medical bills and recuperation until he is able to work again.

I will post periodic reports as to how the fund raising is going and how he progresses. If you would like to send a letter or a care basket directly to Johnny, you can send them care of his brother Olivier at:

Johhny Garro c/o Olivier Garro, 50 metros norte de el cemetario, San Luis, Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica

Click here to Donate

When you make the donation order shipping charges may automatically appear in the total. Should this happen, we will delete these charges prior to processing and make the donation for the amount you specified. I can't figure out how to bypass this.

You can also make a donation by by sending a check to:
Fox Maple, PO Box 249, Brownfield, ME 04010
Make checks payable to: Fox Maple Johnny Fund.