Worker’S Faith Keeps Him Going After Accident He Faces Big Bills, Rehabilitation After Electric Shock, 40-Foot Fall

Jeff Kuntz’s family wondered what would be next: what surgery, what medicine, what skin graft would be needed to keep the Spokane father of five alive?

There was the compound fracture in his left shin and ankle. There was a broken knee, a shattered pelvis and spine. Doctors don’t know if he will walk again.

Those were the injuries from the fall. The electricity wrought a different destruction.

While hanging a billboard sign near Athol, Idaho, three days before Christmas, Kuntz brushed a power line with a metal pole. The shock knocked him off the sign. He fell 40 feet.

The electricity burned his hands. They became infected. The infection crept. By the time doctors halted it, Kuntz lost his right arm just below his shoulder and his left arm just below his elbow.

Self-employed, Kuntz has insurance to cover his hospital stay. But there is little for the months of rehabilitation ahead and the prosthetic arms needed. To save his life, he rode in three ambulances, a helicopter and a plane. Insurance covers $2,000 of that. The plane ride alone cost $8,500.

He wonders how he will support his family.

Through all this there is one thing no doctor’s knife scored, no drug numbed, no accountant billed: Kuntz’s faith.

“The first thing Jeff said to me after the accident,” said his father, Wayne, “was that he knew God allowed him to live for a reason. He doesn’t know what it is, but he looks forward to finding out.”

It is a faith that has buoyed Kuntz and his family. Wayne Kuntz felt its power as his broken and burned son was unloaded from a helicopter at Kootenai Medical Center the day of the accident. Kuntz is now at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

“When I saw him, there was this panic. I thought he was going to die,” Wayne Kuntz said.

But the panic passed as he walked next to his son’s stretcher and prayed.

“From that time on I don’t think I’ve ever despaired or lost faith that God is in control of this situation,” Wayne Kuntz said.

“I knew immediately this was happening for a reason,” said Jeff’s wife, Jennifer Kuntz. “Even though it’s been very hard.”

On Saturday, Jeff and Jennifer Kuntz celebrated Christmas, Wayne’s birthday and the third birthday of Madeline, the couple’s daughter.

Two of the girls gave their Dad a kiss, the best of medicines.

“It was important having given them an opportunity to see their Dad, now they really know what’s going on with him,” Wayne Kuntz said. “I think in their own quiet time they are handling it.”

There were cake, presents and colored paper. And for Jeff Kuntz there was relief in seeing his children.

For gifts, he gave Jennifer “tons of stuff, like he always does,” she said.

She gave him back his wedding ring. Medics cut the band from his finger shortly after the accident. She had it made whole again and put it on a chain for him to wear.

This week, Kuntz gets a prosthesis for his left hand. He begins physical therapy on Monday. He might be moved to Saint Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane in two more weeks.

In the hospital Kuntz talks about his kids, jokes with the nurses, wonders how he will take care of his family.

“Mostly he talks about waiting to see what God wants him to do,” Jennifer Kuntz said. “He’s looking forward to seeing what God has planned for him next.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: HOW TO HELP Benefit Chattaroy Community Church, at 3711 E. Chattaroy Road, will hold a benefit concert for Jeff and Jennifer Kuntz tonight at 7 p.m. Donations to the Jeff and Jennifer Kuntz Fund can be made through any Wells Fargo branch or mailed to Crossover Baptist Church, 311 E. Hastings Road, Spokane, WA 99218. So far, concerned friends and residents have donated $47,000 to the fund.