Help Michael's Traumatic Brain Injury Recovery

Dear friends, family, and community members,

My sister and I are setting up this GoFundMe page for our beloved appah (dad), Michael Hongsuk Kim, a severe traumatic brain injury survivor.

On February 8th, 2023, our appah was found face down by NYPD with blunt force trauma to the back of his head, just days before his 68th birthday. Due to the sustained trauma, he required several neurosurgeries at New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital. Although the appah we knew was forever changed due to the damage to his brain, he survived the injury against all odds and made significant progress at Mount Sinai's inpatient rehabilitation facility. There, he relearned standard activities of daily living like walking, getting out of bed, and basic communication skills. While a full recovery was never in the cards, we hoped to reintegrate our appah into the community and provide him a semblance of his former life.

However, since his time at Mount Sinai, his recovery has encountered numerous setbacks, including a recent diagnosis of hydrocephalus – an accumulation of fluid in his brain, rendering him unable to progress in therapy and the continuous limitations of his Medicare coverage. We've now reached a critical juncture in appah's recovery; while he desperately needs intensive rehabilitation and 24/7 medical care, his remaining insurance only covers custodial care at a nursing home facility. This option would eliminate the chances of recovery entirely for a patient like our father, who faces significant functional challenges and has lost his communication ability.

Given our appah's potential for improvement and the importance of leveraging his brain’s ability to regenerate within the critical one-year timeframe of his injury, my sister and I are fighting to provide our appah with the medical care he needs. This leaves us with the costly option of paying out of pocket for an assisted living facility with respite care that would provide 24/7 supervision and rehabilitation services. The average monthly cost of an assisted living facility with respite care in NY ranges from $15,000 to $20,000. Given the expense, this can only be a temporary workaround while we wait for our appah's Medicare benefit period to renew – which requires him to be out of a hospital or skilled nursing facility for at least 60 days. My sister and I will use the funds raised on appah's behalf to pay for the assisted living facility and additional physical therapy services for the next two months.

While it's difficult to ask for financial support during these harsh economic times, this is the only viable option in our country's incredibly broken healthcare system – our appah's medical expenses will hit $2MM by the end of the year. Although we've lost the memories and characteristics that made our beloved appah the man he was, we will never give up hope on his road to recovery. Please help us get our appah the medical care and rehabilitation he needs for us to provide him with a humane and dignified remainder of his life.

How you can help:

Any support, whether it is a 1) financial contribution to this GoFundMe campaign or 2) sharing this campaign with your friends, family, and social networks, is greatly appreciated.

We are immensely grateful for your continued love and support.

Sincerely,

Andrea and Mikayla Kim