Cathy Lugo’s Medical Journey

Hi friends and family,

In the middle of the night on August 6th, my sweet, beautiful, active mother Cathy Lugo had a tragic accident. She woke up and had a bad spell of vertigo. She fell, hit her head on the bed frame and broke her spine. My dad was awoken from the loud noise and found my mom paralyzed from the neck down. The paramedics were called and immediately took her to the hospital. Unfortunately, the doctors found that my mom’s spine was completely severed and that she needed to have emergency spinal fusion surgery. They said that the paralysis could be permanent and there was no way to know yet. They fused (with hardware) a few vertebrae together to stabilize the neck and spinal cord in that area. This hopefully gives the spinal cord a chance to heal. The surgery went very well, but only time, rest, healing and intense physical and occupational therapy will determine what kind of medical miracle my mom can achieve. My mom’s spine has suffered severe trauma. She is now thankfully breathing on her own and the feeding tubes were just removed. Although we are so grateful to the wonderfully skilled doctors that worked their magic to the best of their abilities, we still have many long roads to potential recovery. Unfortunately, medical insurance is limited and basically only covers the hospital stay. She is now out of the ICU and has began her several weeks stay at a spinal rehabilitation hospital. My mom now has to learn to navigate the world in a new way. With this comes a lot of unforeseen and out-of-pocket medical expenses that is only possible to meet through group effort. We will use the money acquired through this fundraising for rehabilitation, skilled at-home nursing care, hospital bed, wheelchair, handicap ramps, chair elevator, therapists, voice recognition devices, etc. This has taken a tremendous toll on Cathy and her loved ones and any reassurance for financial stability is greatly appreciated by the Lugo family. Please keep Cathy in your thoughts and prayers.