The Carter Family

I started this campaign to help out our friend's Lori and Deron Carter who are struggling due to unforseen circumstances. On 3/19/2011 Deron suffered a stroke at the age of 43. He was an in the hospital and then went to rehab for about 3 wks. From that point he had 5 ER visits between then and 2/4/13 when they thought he had another stroke but found the hole in his heart, Patent Forman ovale. On 4/2/2013 they went to the Cleveland clinic to have it closed. They thought all would be better. Deron chaged jobs from part time to full time, they had 1 full year with no ER visits or hospital stays. In November of 2014, Deron started with pain his side, he also wasn't hired on as permanent employee, so he lost his full time job after 6 months of being there. Many doctors appointments trying to figure out what was causing the pain. On 2/15/15 Deron passed out and hit his head on the tub. The doctors thought out was a possible seizure or another stroke. After checking, they ruled out a seizure, they said he had the flu. He was extremely dizzy, vision problems, was in the hospital 1 week, while there, he lost everything he had regained after the stroke and had to go back to rehab. This time the rehab wasn't as good and he was sent home with a walker. The day before he came home, they told Lori he couldn't be alone for long lengths of time. On 3/10/15 he came home, Lori only had enough PTO to cover for a week, she hadn't worked at her job long enough to get FMLA protection, so she was forced to quit so she could take care of Deron. From that point on Deron started to show signs of cognitive decline on and off. They sought the advice of a neurologist and they thought his anxiety medicine needed to be updated. More health issues cropped up; his Asthma was getting worse, he had more choking, and his voice was very strained. Deron did respiratory therapy, with no improvement, he saw a pulmonologist, who ran many tests and started speech therapy to help. Lori was told at that point that Deron's cognitive abilities had declined to a sixth grade level. 2016 was a year for more ER visits for migraines, one that lasted a whole week, nothing they gave him while in the hospital helped. He was able to find relief from chiropractic and massage therapy. He was continuing to have trouble processing things so they changed his Neurologist for a new perspective. They did some spinal fluid testing to rule out dementia and other diseases. The first tap went perfectly, but due to changes in procedure, the dementia test didn't get done; a 2nd tap was done, and after it his right leg went numb. Deron ended up in hospital for 1 week and rehab for a month from that. They have been trying to get Social security disability since 2015 but it has been a fight. They are waiting on final testing for dementia in Philadelphia if their insurance will cover it. (They normally don't cover out of state. ) Lori had to quit her 2nd part time job when Deron went into hospital because of all the travel and doctors visits. They have tried hard to be able to do this on their own and have exhausted all of their retirement accounts and other possibilities. They are hopeful that the disability will come through by October, but are behind in payments. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.