Bring Laura Home

I am Steve Vogt, husband to Laura, and this fundraiser is to get Laura out of an assisted living facility and return home.

Laura was taken to the emergency room on 14 August 2023, due to difficulty speaking. By the time I arrived at the ER Laura was speaking normally. The doctors did both a CT and an MRI and stated that Laura did not have a stroke, but there was a narrowing of a blood vessel on the left side of her brain. They decided to keep Laura overnight, and the next day Laura was again having trouble speaking and now, walking. On Thursday the 17th, Laura had an ischemic stroke around 8 am, just as I was arriving to visit. I gave the doctors permission to administer the clot busting drug (which causes bleeding in 8% of those who receive it) and Laura then had a hemorrhagic stroke (also called "brain bleed". Laura then was admitted to ICU where she was asleep about 23 hours a day. Laura got out of ICU after about 2 weeks, and then the plan was to move Laura to a rehab facility so she could begin to recover. Laura could not walk, talk, or eat at this point. To go to the rehab facility, she could not be fed via nasogastric tube, so Laura needed a PEG tube into her stomach. However, her white blood cell count was too high to allow the surgery. It took days for them to figure out Laura had a pulmonary embolism that was elevating her white count.

Finally, Laura moved to a skilled nursing facility on September 8 that began physical, occupational, and speech therapy. After a month, Laura went to Encompass Rehabilitation Hospital for one month. She returned to the skilled nursing facility as she was still unable to return home.

Laura is now living at an assisted living facility due to the amount of care she still requires (help with eating, wheelchair transfers, toileting, etc.) and is receiving home health care visits from nurses and physical, occupational, and speech therapists.

We are raising money to complete the modifications to our home so Laura can be moved out of the assisted living facility and live at home with a home health care aide.

Laura is working hard with her therapists to regain her strength so she can return home. She is not happy where she is now.

It’s a burden to pay the fees at the assisted living facility AND pay the contractors doing the work at the same time. The ADA bathroom is complete and paid for, now we are installing a stair lift, widening doorways, and replacing the floor in the master bedroom so it’s easier for her wheelchair to roll across.

All funds donated will be used to pay for required modifications to our home, and then to defray the cost of a home health care aide to assist Laura while I am at work.

Your kind consideration of this fundraiser is humbly requested.