Help our Dad - Athar's spinal cord injury
Donation protected
#HelpOurDad
Mississauga, Ontario - On the 30th of December 2019 evening Athar (Dad), tripped and fell at home. Little did we know that a fall at home would drastically change Dad’s and our lives forever.
Athar’s fall, hitting his forehead facedown on the hardwood floor, caused a whip-like effect on the back of his neck which in turn fractured his neck’s spinal cord (from the C2 to C5 vertebra location) and the spinal cord got pinned within & against the fractured spinal bones. An emergency spinal cord decompression surgery was performed to help relieve the spinal cord and reconstruct the neck’s spinal structure….. But unfortunately the cord damage was already done the moment he fell and his neck broke…...
Dad’s current condition:
As a result, he is now a quadriplegic (paralyzed in both legs and arms, with no motor function or nerve sensation from the chest down) and is on a ventilator, for assisted breathing.
One week post-surgery the doctors decided to do a tracheostomy in his neck to direct the breathing tubes via the neck for better breathing and to start to train him to breath daily, for a few hours, off the ventilator (each day a little longer) so that he could eventually come off the machine.
9 days ago he has developed hospital acquired pneumonia and is facing some other related complications such as impaired kidney function and imbalanced blood-salt levels. He is being treated with antibiotics and other medications, while he still continues to recover from the spinal surgery which at this stage took place 3.5 weeks ago. Due to acute weakness and post-surgery illness & complications, he has been unconscious since 17th Jan 2020.
As f today today (26th jan 2020) dad continues to remain in the ICU, his is partially breathing on his own (at intervals when they take him off the ventilator to exercise his lungs) and we are waiting for him to regain consciousness.
The Situation:
Athar and his wife Nagma (nee Hazel Rodricks) live in Mississauga with their eldest daughter, Jeeba, on a super visa sponsored by their daughter who is a Canadian Citizen. Jeeba and her husband work full time and have four kids which Athar and Nagma helped look after while they work.
The super visa is a special long-term visa offered by the Canadian Government for parents & grandparents to reunite with their families in Canada as an alternative to the Parent’s Permanent Residence (PR) sponsorship program. The Parents PR program is an annual lottery-like program wherein the government only provides 20,000 spots. Last year in 2019 there were over 100,000 applicants trying for the 20,000 spots.
Under the super-visa program each parent is responsible for their own private medical care and cannot avail Canadian’s free healthcare Vs under the Parents PR program medical health care is provided free. Jeeba had been trying since 2017 to sponsor Athar & Nagma under the Parents PR program but with no luck. Time being, since their arrival to Canada, Athar & Nagma had & still continue to have a private health insurance plan in place for their medical needs.
We thought it was necessary to explain the visa & medical situation as its generally assumed that all who stay in Canada have free health-care, but that is not the case.
Can you help us?
Due to the severe & complex nature of a spinal cord injury, the emergency spinal bone reconstruction surgery, the post-surgery critical care and now the ongoing ICU care - Athar’s insurance policy has already maxed out and will not cover his ongoing hospital care; and he is expected to remain in hospital for the next several weeks.
Post hospital-discharge Athar will need several months of rehabilitation & physiotherapy care to bring back his strength and regain some possible/partial limb movement which could come back with the spinal cord healing & strengthening over time.
Athar is currently doing well with his daily breathing exercises in ICU and is currently now upto 8 hours (daily) off the ventilator (even while unconscious the doctors make sure he gets the exercises in to prevent his breathing muscles from weakening). The goal is to get him 100% off the ventilator and breathing independently for life.
Athar will need special equipment at home and will continue to need round-the-clock care for life including bowel movement care, throat/chest secretions cleaning via vacuum, liquid food feeding and will be wheelchair bound. He will also need psychological support from depression, which he will do doubt face as he recovers and come to terms with his condition….
As a family, we have some major challenges ahead of us but we remain strong, hopeful and united in prayers that Athar will recover and will lead a renewed life with his family.
Your generosity, whether it maybe in the form of a donation or by simply sharing this page to help us get the word out, will be deeply & sincerely appreciated from the bottom of our hearts.
(FYI, Athar has two other younger daughters, Rabia and Naheed, that live in Dubai and are team members of this fund-raiser. We three together will continue to post updates on this page as Dad progresses in his recovery).
Note:
Athar was initially admitted to emergency at our local hospital, Credit Valley, in Mississauga after the fall. Within 24 hours he was then transferred to the Trauma Unit at SunnyBrook Hospital in North York where their specialized spinal cord surgery unit performed the emergency surgery.
Athar then received post-opt critical care at SunnyBrook for 2 weeks and was then transferred back to Credit Valley Mississauga for ongoing care where he has been for the last 10 days and continues to remain there for ICU care. Below are some report copies from Sunny Brook that provide a detailed explanation of Athar's spinal injury.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the medical teams & our support workers at both Credit valley & SunnyBrook for their excellent and compassionate care of our Dad. (Permission to mention the hospital names has been prior-approved & provided by the concerned hospitals).
Mississauga, Ontario - On the 30th of December 2019 evening Athar (Dad), tripped and fell at home. Little did we know that a fall at home would drastically change Dad’s and our lives forever.
Athar’s fall, hitting his forehead facedown on the hardwood floor, caused a whip-like effect on the back of his neck which in turn fractured his neck’s spinal cord (from the C2 to C5 vertebra location) and the spinal cord got pinned within & against the fractured spinal bones. An emergency spinal cord decompression surgery was performed to help relieve the spinal cord and reconstruct the neck’s spinal structure….. But unfortunately the cord damage was already done the moment he fell and his neck broke…...
Dad’s current condition:
As a result, he is now a quadriplegic (paralyzed in both legs and arms, with no motor function or nerve sensation from the chest down) and is on a ventilator, for assisted breathing.
One week post-surgery the doctors decided to do a tracheostomy in his neck to direct the breathing tubes via the neck for better breathing and to start to train him to breath daily, for a few hours, off the ventilator (each day a little longer) so that he could eventually come off the machine.
9 days ago he has developed hospital acquired pneumonia and is facing some other related complications such as impaired kidney function and imbalanced blood-salt levels. He is being treated with antibiotics and other medications, while he still continues to recover from the spinal surgery which at this stage took place 3.5 weeks ago. Due to acute weakness and post-surgery illness & complications, he has been unconscious since 17th Jan 2020.
As f today today (26th jan 2020) dad continues to remain in the ICU, his is partially breathing on his own (at intervals when they take him off the ventilator to exercise his lungs) and we are waiting for him to regain consciousness.
The Situation:
Athar and his wife Nagma (nee Hazel Rodricks) live in Mississauga with their eldest daughter, Jeeba, on a super visa sponsored by their daughter who is a Canadian Citizen. Jeeba and her husband work full time and have four kids which Athar and Nagma helped look after while they work.
The super visa is a special long-term visa offered by the Canadian Government for parents & grandparents to reunite with their families in Canada as an alternative to the Parent’s Permanent Residence (PR) sponsorship program. The Parents PR program is an annual lottery-like program wherein the government only provides 20,000 spots. Last year in 2019 there were over 100,000 applicants trying for the 20,000 spots.
Under the super-visa program each parent is responsible for their own private medical care and cannot avail Canadian’s free healthcare Vs under the Parents PR program medical health care is provided free. Jeeba had been trying since 2017 to sponsor Athar & Nagma under the Parents PR program but with no luck. Time being, since their arrival to Canada, Athar & Nagma had & still continue to have a private health insurance plan in place for their medical needs.
We thought it was necessary to explain the visa & medical situation as its generally assumed that all who stay in Canada have free health-care, but that is not the case.
Can you help us?
Due to the severe & complex nature of a spinal cord injury, the emergency spinal bone reconstruction surgery, the post-surgery critical care and now the ongoing ICU care - Athar’s insurance policy has already maxed out and will not cover his ongoing hospital care; and he is expected to remain in hospital for the next several weeks.
Post hospital-discharge Athar will need several months of rehabilitation & physiotherapy care to bring back his strength and regain some possible/partial limb movement which could come back with the spinal cord healing & strengthening over time.
Athar is currently doing well with his daily breathing exercises in ICU and is currently now upto 8 hours (daily) off the ventilator (even while unconscious the doctors make sure he gets the exercises in to prevent his breathing muscles from weakening). The goal is to get him 100% off the ventilator and breathing independently for life.
Athar will need special equipment at home and will continue to need round-the-clock care for life including bowel movement care, throat/chest secretions cleaning via vacuum, liquid food feeding and will be wheelchair bound. He will also need psychological support from depression, which he will do doubt face as he recovers and come to terms with his condition….
As a family, we have some major challenges ahead of us but we remain strong, hopeful and united in prayers that Athar will recover and will lead a renewed life with his family.
Your generosity, whether it maybe in the form of a donation or by simply sharing this page to help us get the word out, will be deeply & sincerely appreciated from the bottom of our hearts.
(FYI, Athar has two other younger daughters, Rabia and Naheed, that live in Dubai and are team members of this fund-raiser. We three together will continue to post updates on this page as Dad progresses in his recovery).
Note:
Athar was initially admitted to emergency at our local hospital, Credit Valley, in Mississauga after the fall. Within 24 hours he was then transferred to the Trauma Unit at SunnyBrook Hospital in North York where their specialized spinal cord surgery unit performed the emergency surgery.
Athar then received post-opt critical care at SunnyBrook for 2 weeks and was then transferred back to Credit Valley Mississauga for ongoing care where he has been for the last 10 days and continues to remain there for ICU care. Below are some report copies from Sunny Brook that provide a detailed explanation of Athar's spinal injury.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank the medical teams & our support workers at both Credit valley & SunnyBrook for their excellent and compassionate care of our Dad. (Permission to mention the hospital names has been prior-approved & provided by the concerned hospitals).
Fundraising team: Siddiqi Girls (3)
Jeeba Siddiqi
Organizer
Mississauga, ON
Naheed Siddiqi
Team member
Rabia Siddiqi
Team member
Begin your fundraising journey
