On September 13th, 2025 our son, Joe Perillo, collapsed on the floor when he tried to get out of bed. After some time trying to get up, he realized that he had no feeling from his mid ribcage down to his toes. This happened with no warning while he was alone in the house. Luckily, he was able to reach his phone on the night stand and call 911 for help. He crawled to the door using his arms, unlocked it and laid on the floor waiting for help. Joe was taken to the nearest hospital and then moved to a second hospital that was more equipped for his situation. Luckily his brother Jimmy had been able to find out where he was taken and called their sister Jamie (and fiance John) to meet him there.

By late that evening, after multiple tests and imaging, Joe was rushed into a complicated emergency surgery. Jamie was able to speak to the neurosurgeon prior to surgery who explained this was his best hope of regaining any function or feeling, with the goal of eventually walking again, but that they had to move quickly. She called to let us know what was going on since were out of town at the time on a road trip (at Niagara Falls) and we left immediately on the 12-hour overnight drive to get home as quickly (and safely) as possible. Jamie (and John) kept us posted on what was happening overnight and were there the next morning when he woke up. We were able to get to the hospital around noon.

The neorosurgeon was able to remove a cyst/abscess that was around his spinal cord squeezing on the nerves, and drained an infection that had also spread to other areas on his spine, along with doing a laminectomy to relieve pressure to his spinal cord. Joe was left with over 40 staples in his back and in a tremendous amount of pain. From surgical recovery, to the ICU, to the step-up floor and then to an acute care recovery hospital, Joe has progressed in a very positive and promising way. It has been a long and very painful 5-6 weeks for him healing from the surgery and dealing with involuntary, acute and extended muscle spasms in his back and legs. Althought painful they are a good sign of the body attemping to reconnect the nerves and recover. We are all thankful that he was a fairly healthy 38 year old before this happened as that has had everything to do with his trajectory so far. As of this writing is has been about 7 weeks since the surgery. The doctors remain hopeful that he will eventually be able to stand and walk again with the proper care, specialized physical therapy for spinal injuries and hard work on his part.

This is where things get much more complicated. Hard to imagine right!? After some site visits, research and consulting with Joe's doctors, physical therapists and nursing team we determined his very best chance at recovery and walking again would be to move him to the MUSC/Encompass Acute Care Rehab Hospital in North Charleston where they specialize in spinal cord injuries and all the things he needs to learn to take care of himself while he works to recover. They offer 3-5 hours of PT and OT per day along with the goal of helping him become as independent as possible during his time there. Unfortunately, even though this facility should be covered by his insurance, it has been denied multiple times as have all of our appeals and those of the MUSC facility even though this is the care we and his care team KNOW HE NEEDS. They instead approved him being moved to a nursing home where the conditions are unsafe for a paralyzed person and he would only get 15-20 minutes of physical therapy per day (enough to "maintain" his current condition) with no goal of and a minimal chance at recovery or improvement.

This is why we are asking for YOUR HELP. On Thursday October 23rd we made the choice to send Joe to what our family has lovingly started refering to as "the good place" so that he would have the best chance at recovery and possibly standing and walking again. That said, we are now in an “out of pocket self pay” situation at the PT Rehab Hospital. Originally his stay was going to be about 2 weeks, but now his doctors say he needs to stay as long as possible, likely around a month, possibly longer. The total cost for month will be around $40,000. We are retired and have exhausted all the funds we have available. Joe has applied for financial assistance and we are investigate grants and other support options (suggestions welcome!).

Any contribution you can make will be used to cover the cost of "the good place" and for what he will need after that as he faces a new reality filled with challenges and adaptations. When the time comes he will be coming home to our house. Before that can happen we need to revonate our second bathroom and make it 100% accessible for him (new shower, sink and toilet). He will also need Home Health Care for a while, long term Outpatient Physical Therapy and a custom wheel chair (around $3,000). Because of the length of his legs this will enable him to transfer more easily from bed to chair, then chair to toilet, shower, couch or car. Because we are “old” and he’s a big guy, he needs to be able to do that himself. He will also need specialized equipment at home to do PT and strength exercises, an adjustable bed and a ramp (which is hopefully going to be taken care of by a non-profit that build ramps for folks in Joe's situation). We hope that the insurance will help with the rest of that but if they do it will only be for a very short time and he has been told he will need to continue PT for many months and possibly years. His care team feels that, since he is so young, if he does that he will hopefully walk again.

We are so lucky to have a strong and supportive family around us with Jamie & John, Jimmy & Tara (and the kids) and all of our extended family and friends. We will all be here to help and support Joe any way we can through this and we hope that you can donate to his cause.

If you can’t, we hope you can pass this along to anyone you think might want to help and we appreciate anything you can do.

Anything you can contribute along with your love and support during this challenging time means a lot to Joe and to our entire family.

The "J" TEAM

Jim, Jeri, Jamie & John, Jimmy & Tara & kids and JOE