Alex Kortuem’s Stroke Recovery
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My brother, Alex Kortuem, suffered a very large brain bleed (right brain hemorrhagic stroke) on January 25, 2021. He was airlifted to the nearest large hospital for emergency brain surgery. He spent the next 5 days on a ventilator and 10 days total in ICU. We are happy to share that he is now recovering on the Neurosurgical floor, waiting to be medically ready to relocate to an intensive inpatient rehab facility in the Seattle area. We are all hoping and praying for as much recovery as possible. At this time, Alex is still unable to move or feel the entire left side of his body. He will be in rehab for at least 30 days, followed by months of therapies to help him learn a new way of life and achieve a new set of goals. Due to CoViD-19 risks, Alex has not been allowed ANY visitors throughout this ordeal.
Alex has always been very active outdoors: riding mountain bikes since he could walk, cutting firewood with his dad in Montana, instilling a love of nature in his children with lots of family camping trips and hikes. Alex has been an avid mountaineer, backcountry skier, and volunteer mountaineering instructor, sharing his passion for the natural world. Now, at age 45, Alex will face the largest and most difficult climb of his life thus far.
As a self-employed small business owner, and effectively a one-man army, Alex has operated a small general contracting business, serving his small community north of Seattle since 1999. This accounted for approximately 70 percent of the family’s household income. Due to the severity of his stroke, and complications during his time in ICU, Alex’s medical team expects he will be unable to return to this type of work for at least a year, if at all.
So many of Alex’s friends and family have asked how they can be of help during this time, which led me to creating this GoFundMe page. During a time when we cannot be there physically, we can support in other ways. We hope to ease the financial challenges of this life-altering nightmare for Alex, his wife Heather, and their three children, Keegan, Miranda, and Mallory. They already feel blessed by the immediate offerings of support by friends, family and the community Alex has worked in for years.
Alex has always been very active outdoors: riding mountain bikes since he could walk, cutting firewood with his dad in Montana, instilling a love of nature in his children with lots of family camping trips and hikes. Alex has been an avid mountaineer, backcountry skier, and volunteer mountaineering instructor, sharing his passion for the natural world. Now, at age 45, Alex will face the largest and most difficult climb of his life thus far.
As a self-employed small business owner, and effectively a one-man army, Alex has operated a small general contracting business, serving his small community north of Seattle since 1999. This accounted for approximately 70 percent of the family’s household income. Due to the severity of his stroke, and complications during his time in ICU, Alex’s medical team expects he will be unable to return to this type of work for at least a year, if at all.
So many of Alex’s friends and family have asked how they can be of help during this time, which led me to creating this GoFundMe page. During a time when we cannot be there physically, we can support in other ways. We hope to ease the financial challenges of this life-altering nightmare for Alex, his wife Heather, and their three children, Keegan, Miranda, and Mallory. They already feel blessed by the immediate offerings of support by friends, family and the community Alex has worked in for years.
Thank you to everyone, we will keep you updated on Alex’s progress.
Organizer and beneficiary
Hilary Lott
Organizer
Coupeville, WA
Heather Kortuem
Beneficiary
