Help Rick Waters Walk Again After Spinal Stroke

Rick Waters is my cousin. He is a hard-working man with a large generous heart. His super power has been his empathy toward helping others. Now he needs our help. He went to bed the other night seemingly healthy and woke up the next morning paralyzed from the mid-torso down to his toes. He suffered a rare condition called a spinal stroke. Until the other day, Rick was healthy and active. He could often be found riding his bike along the Boise River for exercise and relaxation where he would meet and talk with people from all walks of life. He especially enjoyed his volunteer service with Courageous Survival, a non-profit helping veterans, first responders and their families suffering from trauma-induced mental health and post-traumatic stress injuries. He is also a dedicated member of the core team setting up the Eagle Field of Honor for 18 years. The Eagle Field of Honor is now the longest, consecutively-run Field of Honor in the country. His volunteer service on behalf of veterans has brought him a lot of joy and fulfillment. Now Rick needs your help to deal with his new life without the use of his legs as well as managing the damage to the internal organs that are affected by the spinal cord paralysis. He is trying to stay positive and keep fighting.

A major stress is of course the cost that he is facing. Rick is retired and on a fixed social security income. He would regularly augment his income creating commercial signs for local businesses, but now he is no longer able to use those tools or climb those ladders. Rick has spent the last month in the St Lukes hospital receiving treatment on his spinal cord and starting physical and occupational therapy to try to use his legs again. This will be a very long (years) and costly process. Rick is currently limited to a wheelchair full-time. Although he will likely never be fully out of the wheelchair, he hopes that in time and with continued therapy he can progress to limited standing and walking with a walker.

Please help us help Rick. Rick lives alone. All donations will go to helping Rick pay for the long-term costs of paralysis care, therapy, life changes, adaptations to his living space, transportation, etc. Please contribute to help Rick get back on his feet and back to living his life, even if those feet are on wheels.