First off I’d like to let everyone know that Ben K is now doing much better. Read about what happened to him here. He’s out of the hospital and according to his friends is supposed to make an almost complete recovery over the course of the next couple months. Apparently he’s already doing super good. And in a really bizarre turn of events, apparently the hospital has decided to waive Ben’s 6 figure medical bill for 500 dollars. I’ve never, ever heard of anything like that happening before. But it’s pretty amazing. However he’s still got to keep doing physical therapy which is real expensive, and the guys from Catty are doing a big jam to raise money for him:

“This is a flyer for the Catty woods jam Nov. 1. We are having 50/50 raffle with 8 prize packages all between 200 to 1000 dollars worth of goods with the top prize having a Sunday trail frame. We are also having a 10 dollar long jump contest where all the money goes to Ben for his medical bills. Winner of the long jump gets close to 1000 package with a complete back odyssey wheel. The long jump is after 3 berms and a roller tabletop, so anyone can do it.”

And just for the record, the reason why people like Ben have such a hard time in situations like this is because we’re one of the only country’s fucked up enough to not have public health care. If you oppose Obama’s health care reform plan you should kill yourself.

Yesterday I received a text about my boy Ben Kanclerowicz (if you missed it the first time, here’s the post about what happened to him):

“What it do 22, just talked to Ben’s sister… dude walked down the hall w/ his mom yesterday. She said the only thing that’s not completely back is his short term memory.”

Best news I’ve heard in a while… I can’t wait to see Ben again, hopefully his condition is as good as that text makes it sound. Ben’s friends are throwing a fund raiser at Shakespeare’s in Austin for him Sunday. Check the Facebook event page here.

One of my good friends, and I’m sure many of yours, Ben Kanclerowicz (BTW this is the first time I’ve ever called him anything besides “Ben From Texas”) was involved in an awful accident last night while riding his bike. Instead of trying to paraphrase what happened to him, I’ve quoted part of an email I got from his friend Tristan.

” I wish this was just another random e-mail to tell you about the latest They Aint Ready video, but its some other other shit. Our boy got hit on his road bike coming home from the bar monday night. A girl he knew fell off her bike, BK stopped to help her and a girl in a volvo full on hit him. He’s in critical condition, breathing on a ventilator at a hospital here in Austin. I dont think he’s gonna die, but he might not be the same when he recovers. He’s got a broken collar bone, a few really deep cuts on his arms & legs and the concussion of all concussions. We thought the worst was over last night, but this morning he stopped breathing and went into emergency neurosurgery, removing two peices of his skull to reduce the swelling in his brain. The spot he hit on his head is effecting his behavior. From the moment he got hit, he was pretty much going crazy, refusing aid, trying to rip out his IVs and the whole nine. Whats crazy is they had to knock him out with the same drug michael jackson’s punk ass overdosed on just to treat him initially. So as it stands right now, it pretty much looks like he’s in an episode of House, except this is gonna take alot longer to play out. Doctors’ estimate says that he could be in the ICU for up to two months. Of course, he’s got no insurance and the bill is going to be other-worldly. We’ve thought about a benefit, but I dont think the most successful of benefits could put a dent in what will likely end up being over half a mill in bills, so the jury’s still out on that. Just thought that since you actually know Ben, you should know whats goin on. We’re gonna update the site when we know more, but for now, i’m just giving updates as i get em via twitter. Probably gonna go see him sunday. So there it is, you know what I know.”

Anyone who knows Ben, knows what an amazing human being he is… when we last spent time riding together in Philly and NYC a couple months ago, I actually repeatedly referred to him as the most easy to get along with person I know. I know Ben will make it out of this okay but I figured everyone should know. If you want to send Ben a message or anything, here’s his Facebook.