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Susie's Medical/Rehabilitation Fund

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On June 20th 2015 Susie had a very serious  car accident. For the first few days Susie was in a coma fighting for her life. When Susie awoke, it became clear that she would be paralyzed; we were told she had incomplete quadriplegia with high-cervical spine injury (C1 – C4). Susie’s spinal cord is not completely "broken" but the injury left her paralyzed from neck down and on the respirator; because her core muscles are too week to let her breathe on her own.

Susie had 2 operations done in Loyola Hospital in Maywood, Illinois to stabilize her spine, but we were told there’s nothing more they can do to make her move again, everything is in the hands of God.  

Within the first week we knew that she was able to hear and understand us. She was able to respond to all of our questions. We noticed how she moved her legs and shoulders when the nurses came in to care and evaluate her. After short period of time Suisie regain ability to feel touch and temperature on her body.  Because Susie didn’t have an insurance at the time of the accident she was not able to go to any good rehabilitation center. With some help and training from Loyola Hospital, she was sent home where her husband and her mom were taking care of her. Susie’s mom came from Poland to US to take care of Susie after her accident.

Zuzana is fully awake and her brain is functioning just like before the accident. She's on the respirator and the trach is cutting her vocal cords, otherwise she would be able to speak. Zuzanna is mouthing words to us; we are also using The Alphabet Eye Gaze Frame (e-tran) when she needs to spell something out for us to communicate better. As I mention before she can feel touch, pain and temperature in her whole body, which we hope is a great potential to build on. Few months after her accident she started moving her little finger in the right hand; later she was able to move her thumb and index finger along with 2 other fingers in her right hand - all on her own! We were very hopeful that with the right rehabilitation she would be able to do so much more!

Susie, as her friends call her, full name Zuzanna Rafalo (maiden name Karwowska) worked as a supervisor and a dental assistant to a dental surgeon, she absolutely loved her job. Dentistry was her passion and she hoped to become a dentist in the future. This is what her employer -Royal Dental- said about her: “She was a very definition of “GIVING and SERVING”. She was a joy to work with and our patients liked her tremendously.”

Susie had lots of friends and was always a really unique person, full of energy and joy for life.

At the end of the year 2015 Susie was able to get insurance through Obama care and we were able to hire a therapist  to come to her 2-wice a week, but that just seemed like not enough. Through our journey we kept hearing from medical staff and other people about an amazing rehabilitation center that is RIC (Rehabilitation Center of Chicago) that specializes in spine injuries. From then on our goal was to get Zuzanna to RIC. Unfortunately the insurance we obtained through Obama Care would not cover RIC and we were told that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to get Zuzanna referral from home to RIC. We did not lose hope and kept fighting. On Susie’s wall, there's a list of goals she wants to achieve. One day when she felt really down and hopeless, we come up with few goals, so instead of looking at the empty wall she could look at her goals whenever she is alone and focus her thoughts and hopes on that. "To go to RIC" was her Goal# 1!

Being home Zuzanna’s situation looked hopeless, we didn’t get enough help  from medical staff, doctor would see Zuzanna only once a month and respiratory trying that we went through in Loyola didn’t prepare us for some unexpected issues that Susie encounter. After few incidents Susie end it up at Presence Saint Joseph Hospital in Elgin, where she spent about a month.

From there we were able to get Zuzanna to Presence Holy Family Medical Center in hopes of getting better rehabilitation and respiratory help, also in hopes of getting a referral to go to RIC.
Unfortunately her stay there was cut short, because  Susie’s insurance did not want it to cover it any longer.

She was transported to Alden Lakeland nursing home in Chicago; far away from where her closest family lived. Due to many stress causing event's in her life (her husband abandon her since), being moved from the facility to a facility, very limited rehabilitation her progress would come and go..

 Eventually, after few months, we were able to move Susie closer to her family to the nursing home at  Alden Estates of Barrington, where she resides today.


Around Christmas 2016 something incredible happened; after so many tries and fails to get Susie into RIC, finally BCBS insurance agreed to sign one-time agreement to get Susie to Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. It was truly a Christmas miracle! Susie and all of us were very excited and hopeful!

At the first family meeting with RIC staff, they assured us they are eager to help Susie and the goal would be to transition from RIC to her home in the community and put in place a home program that would enhance her quality of life. Unfortunately at this point in her life, Susie doesn’t have any home to go back to.

Right now we need to find Susie a place to live, where she can live with her mom after her saty in RIC and continue to go to RIC as an out-patient. This is the best road to take to help her recover as much as possible and become a part of society. 

Challenges: 
A spinal cord injury at Susie's level can cost a family more than
$184,891 per year (https://www.christopherreeve.org/living-with-paralysis/costs-and-insurance/costs-of-living-with-spinal-cord-injury#average-yearly-costs) . Physical therapy, equipment replacements and other expenses are frequently not fully covered by insurance.

Please donate to the fund. 
Our plea to you is to open your hearts and help her recover.
Even the smallest amount will help tremendously if repeated by many. What would you do to gain the ability to speak or move your fingers again? Her fate is in our hands.

Thank You from the bottom of the heart!

Organizer and beneficiary

Aneta Sulewska
Organizer
Grayslake, IL
Piotr Trojan
Beneficiary

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