Motorcycle Crash Victim In Fight To Save Leg

OAK FOREST, IL — A lifelong Oak Forest resident and beloved member of the team at a local bar and grill is still hospitalized and doctors are fighting to save part of her leg, following a motorcycle crash in Tinley Park Memorial Day weekend.

Autumn Majeski suffered serious injuries to her left leg when the motorcycle she was riding with her husband was struck by a car near 174th and Oak Park Avenue in Tinley Park May 30. In the five weeks since, Majeski has undergone 10 surgeries to repair the damage done to her leg and foot, and remains hospitalized. Doctors are uncertain if they will be successful in saving her lower leg. The driver of the car—a 59-year-old Oak Forest man and accused drunken driver—faces two counts of aggravated DUI.

Majeski's work family at Marcotte's Bar and Grill in Oak Forest have started a Go Fund Me on behalf of Majeski and her husband Jeff, who also suffered a broken foot in the crash. The two have 5-year-old twins, and the family is faced with spending extended time apart as Majeski recovers.

"She’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met," said Jackie Behling, manager at Marcotte's. "She’s always had such an energetic personality and a love for the customers. So naturally, when the crash happened, we were all beside ourselves and wanted to do anything to help.

"We’re a family at Marcotte's. She’s our sister. And she would be doing everything in her power to help if the tables were turned on anyone else. ... We are still willing to do whatever it takes to get her home, walking again, and back home to her husband and kids."

The staff started a daily donation jar that has generated $2,000 thus far and has grown into a Go Fund Me in their friend's name. The money will help support the family as Majeski faced yet another surgery July 6.

Her injuries included a broken femur, tibia and fibula and a crushed foot, all in her left leg. Much of the skin around her ankle was also stripped from her body or badly damaged in the crash, and doctors are struggling to repair it. Rods have been inserted in her femur, tibia and fibula to promote their healing. Doctors have attempted a larger skin graft called a "flap," first removing skin from her wrist to elbow and using that as well as blood vessels to try to cover her exposed foot and bones. The graft failed, and the flap died, Jeff Majeski said. Now they're on to their second attempt, using skin from her right thigh. If this one does not take, she faces amputation of her left leg below the knee.

Autumn had remained largely positive until the first flap failed, Jeff said.

"The first couple of weeks, she was in such good spirits, you wouldn’t even know she had been in an accident," he said. "But ever since the first attempt of the flap failed, she’s in so much pain constantly, depression’s starting to kick in. It’s rough … personally, I hate seeing her like that. It’s really difficult for me to even see her like that. She’s trying her best to stay positive. We’re just hoping and praying that this flap does work, and they’re able to save her leg."

The possibility of losing part of her leg has shaken Majeski, her husband said, mostly for the impact it might have on her lifestyle as a mom.

"She’s truly just an amazing mom," he said. "She spends all day, everyday with the kids, always outside with them, playing at different parks, going on bike rides. Going over to parents’, going swimming, going to the zoo.

"She wants this flap to work, and she’s concerned if it doesn’t and they have to go through with the amputation, that’s life-changing. ... and the day-to-day that comes with that, of if it goes the wrong way, and the flap doesn’t work ... she’s worried about is she still going to be able to run around with the kids, ride bikes? All the day-to-day stuff that you take for granted, that’s going to be completely different."

The night of the crash, the couple had been on their way home from a weekend motorcycle trip with friends Mike and Jessica Serna. An annual tradition, they buzz through western Illinois and Iowa, making stops along the way. They were just a few miles from home that day when the crash happened.

"We were 4 miles from home," Jeff said. "We put 1,000 miles on the motorcycle that weekend, and then you get 4 miles from your house, and that’s when an accident happens."

Jeff feels badly that Autumn is facing the brunt of the injuries.

"I almost pretty much just walked away from it uninjured," he said. "Ever since the accident happened, it’s just a lot of guilt. I have an injury also, but mine is no big deal. I had a quick little surgery ... in a few weeks I’ll be able to walk again. I just feel so much guilt that she has to go through all this.

"I wish there were some way that I could switch places with her."

Mike Serna feels a similar sense of guilt, but for different reasons. Serna and Jeff have known each other for 8 years, and Jeff is "like a little brother" to Serna. They rarely separate on long rides, but that day when their traveling buddies stopped for a bite while en route home, Serna and his wife continued on.

"Obviously the worst thing imaginable happened to them," Mike Serna said. "I should have been there with him, maybe it wouldn’t have happened if I had been."

Serna's wife Jessica calls Majeski one of her best friends, noting her strength and warmth.

"She’s just amazing, she’s the strongest person I know," Jessica siad. "She’s quirky. She’s so much fun. She’s just an amazing person, great friend, mother, wife. She’s more than a friend, she’s family.

"What they’re going through, I have no words for that."

The hardest part for Majeski has been the time away from her children. Hospital policy does not allow children under 12 to visit, so her time with them has been brief, if at all, or via FaceTime.

"I broke down and I cried," Majeksi said. "I can handle the physical pain, but the emotional pain of not being able to be with my kids is the most painful."

"I was being strong and positive, and had my high spirits. Even when they told me it was a 99 percent chance of amputating … you can take it, if that’s the price I pay, to be alive and be here with my kids and my husband, and see my kids grow up."

Majeski was moved to tears when she heard about fundraising efforts in her name.

"It’s such a great feeling to know that we have so much support in our lives, so many people there willing to help," she said. "You never think about when that 'something' happens. ... It’s so wholesome and it makes you feel truly warm inside, that there are people who care about you, and love you unconditionally, and actually want to help. They don’t just say it to say it, they actually show up."

Behling and others plan to hold a benefit for the Majeski family, date and location to be determined.