Help Cover Medical expenses for Bill

Hi, my name is Anne and I work with Kirsti Hourigan. This account is being established for her family and all access to funds is only allowed to Kirsti for her husband Bill's medical expenses.

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Kirsti 's husband Bill suffered a medical emergency earlier this year. Kirst was traveling for work and on the evening of July 13 her husband Bill was at home with their 16 year old son when he started experiencing an excruciating headache and a loss of balance. Their son immediately drove him to the hospital where Bill lost consciousness and was diagnosed with a hemorrhagic stroke and airlifted to Fargo for treatment. He underwent emergency surgery that night and stayed in the ICU for over two weeks. Because his stroke started in the cerebellum and affected the brainstem, when he eventually regained consciousness he discovered that he was completely paralyzed with the exception of being able to blink his eyes.

Bill then moved to a long-term acute care hospital in Bismarck for approximately two months where, a month after the stroke, he slowly began to regain the ability to move: first moving his fingers, then his toes, and eventually his hands and feet. At the end of September he flew to Chicago to take part in the inpatient rehabilitation program at Shirley Ryan Ability Lab. Through inpatient rehabilitation Bill worked with therapists 3+ hours a day, 6 days a week, plus doing homework assignments, which has helped him to make great strides with speech, daily living tasks, and he is now standing and beginning to take steps with assistance. The area of the brain affected by the stroke is responsible for balance and coordination, which makes many of these tasks difficult, but he continues to recover more every day. Thankfully, his wit, humor, and love of Yankees baseball, Giants football and his dog Murray are as strong as ever.

I’m happy to report Bill achieved another goal just in time for Thanksgiving! Bill returned home on November 23 to his happy family, two dogs and two cats. Outpatient therapy will continue for several months as he works to regain the majority of his pre-stroke abilities and return to the job he loves.

At this time, the family is grateful for medical insurance but is also experiencing several uncovered expenses and could use your help! To date, for a medical flight to return him home, ramps and lifts in the home to help Bill navigate, along with other every day living devices such as shower chair, wheelchair, walker, etc. the families costs are rising. In order for Kirsti to work and Bill to have home assistance and transportation to therapy and medical appointments they are working with a Home Health Provider at just under $2,000 per week. In total, their portion of expenses have come to $45,000 thus far with more on the way.

Anyone wishing to help Bill and his family offset some of these costs may donate to them through this account.

The Family is quite humble and was not sure that they wanted to reach out in their time of need. However, it is the Season of Giving and hopefully when we all come together with donations of any size, it amounts to taking a significant pressure off of their shoulders so they can focus on Bill's ongoing recovery.

Thank you for considering this family in your giving.