More than a month after a freak accident put him in a coma, a West Linn man remains relegated to a hospital bed in Hungary with no clear path to recovery.
At the same time, Zack Edmondson's family is asking for help raising money to cover bills, mounting for a month.
DONATE: GoFundMe campaign for Zack
"Like every time I look at stairs now, they look just like crazy," said 33-year-old Jeff Edmondson, as he sat in the kitchen of his Vancouver home Sunday. "Like someone could fall down those stairs, and everything could be different."
Jeff's younger brother, 29, had recently traveled to the small village of Papa, Hungary to teach English.
Last month, Jeff said, Zack was leaving a bar with friends when he tripped on an old, stone staircase.
He went airborne and landed on his head.
Within hours, their mom got a phone call.
"He was in surgery, and it was serious enough that she needed to go, is what they said," recalled Jeff.
Kathy Edmondson, who works as a teacher in the Portland area, hasn't been back since.
On a GoFundMe page started soon after Zack's accident, a cousin wrote "He has undergone two brain surgeries, is currently in a coma and has been given a bleak outcome. He risks infection, which may cause his death and the next three weeks are critical. His brain swelling is extreme and is currently unchanged."
Now, a month later, progress is slow and nothing is guaranteed.
"My mom, she said, 'Do you know you have a brother?' and he kind of thought for a minute, furled his brow and said 'I do?' " said Jeff, who's been back and forth between Hungary and Vancouver. "He'll talk a lot of jibberish."
But there is reason to hope.
Doctors originally told Kathy Edmondson the fall primarily damaged the portion of Zack's brain responsible for his vision and that the injury may make him permanently blind.
In the last couple weeks, he's started reacting to pictures.
"They showed him pictures of the cats, and he kind of responded, like said 'Aww,' " said Jeff. "And the thing about brain injuries is, he could have stayed vegetative forever, where he is now, he could be that way forever. If everything goes well, it's only a year, but things could kind of stall."
And if that happens, problems will mount.
Universal healthcare in Hungary is covering Zack's treatments for now, but that could run out within three to four months.
Beyond that, there's no additional money coming in to cover Kathy's cost of living or her mortgage and bills back home.
The hope is that family will be able to move Zack home soon.
If and when that happens, the road ahead will be anything but easy.
"It is insane that like everything, I mean his life will be different forever," said Jeff. "He won't be able to remember what happened or even understand what happened for months. You can lose like months of your life like that just from walking up the stairs."