Help Dustin with his Medical Bills and Expenses

My brother Dustin fell down a flight of 14 stairs in April and suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI). His face and head took the brunt of the multiple impacts and caused severe brain swelling. Since his fall, he has since been diagnosed with TBI and Aphasia. Aphasia is the loss of the ability to understand or express spoken or written language. At first, during our conversations with Dustin, he would very passionately speak in garbled words and sounds but could say a few words distinctly. His vocabulary and understanding are slowly improving through his hard work in therapy. About a month ago, Dustin would think to respond “thank you”, when we would say “I love you”, but now he responds “I love you” again like he used to. His psychiatrist has noted that his level of understanding is greatly diminished and she believes Dustin might not know who he is or who his family members are. Our family is hoping that his understanding will improve with time and therapy.

However, Dustin has faced major roadblocks in his long road to recovery. After his fall, the doctors removed a portion of his skull bone to relieve his brain swelling. Unfortunately, in an attempt to put his skull back in place, Dustin had an infection from the surgery and they had to remove the portion of his skull again. We are currently awaiting another surgery to replace his skull because once this is successfully completed, he can begin more intensive therapy that could take months, if not years for him to recover.

As you can imagine, there are many various expenses that Dustin is unable to cover. Our family is asking for any assistance towards Dustin’s astronomical intensive care hospital bill, the expenses for the rehab facility that has provided 24/7 care, and accommodations for his next rehab facility. There are also miscellaneous expenses such as his phone bill for him to continue the occupational therapy that requires him to do exercises on his phone. Furthermore, our family wishes to pay Dustin’s girlfriend back for all of the bills and expenses she has lovingly paid for him without question.

Our family is also needing assistance with Dustin’s legal expenses. Although we are eager for his skull to be replaced, once it is healed, he will no longer be eligible for his current rehab facility. We will have to obtain Ohio guardianship of Dustin to be able to move him into a new facility. It was only in February of this year that Dustin and his wonderful girlfriend, Melissa, moved out of our home state for the first time to Ohio. Since all of our family is still located in the Kansas and Missouri area, we are needing to jump through legal hoops to obtain guardianship of Dustin, because if we don’t, the state of Ohio will obtain his guardianship and have the right to make his medical decisions. My dad also needs to obtain Dustin’s Ohio guardianship so our family can apply for Dustin’s disability status and financial guardianship because his bank account has only $4 due to recurring bills and payments.

Thank you for your compassion and any aid you can provide to Dustin and our family. As with all accidents, we never were expecting Dustin’s life to turn completely upside down. Our family wishes to fully support Dustin through his long and difficult recovery, so we would appreciate any help you are willing to give.