Michael Cutt's Rehabilitation Fight
Donation protected
Our dearly beloved friend, brother, father, and Jodie’s love, Michael Cutt needs our help now.
He is a kind, adventurous, wickedly funny, actor, writer, and director whose life changed irremediably on January 3, 2017.
As an avid outdoorsmen, Michael loved his home of Reno, Nevada. You could find Michael taking long walks with his dogs along the rivers of the Sierra Nevada’s and treasured hiking the local mountains with his friends on any given day of the week. Last November after his 65th birthday he climbed to the summit of Mt. Whitney 14,505 feet, a climb he had performed earlier in his youth.
It was 5:30 AM during the extreme winter storm of early January, when on his morning walk to the gym, Michael slipped and fell on a sheet of ice, striking his tailbone and shattering his neck. Instantly, the fall left Michael paralyzed in the street until the EMTs came and rushed him to the hospital.
At the hospital, Michael was unable to feel or move any part of his body below his shoulders, except for his left thumb and a slight wiggle in his toes. The doctor diagnosed him with Acute Traumatic Central Cord Syndrome and he needed a very high-risk surgery the next day. His c3, c4, c5, and c,6 disks were highly compressed together and needed synthetic discs replacements and bolts to stabilize his neck. While some nerves are severely damaged or severed, some are still fully intact. This means there is room for growth and a regain of movement for him, but only with extensive rehab and care.
Fortunately, Michael purchased a Medicare supplement plan specifically for the extra protection beyond Medicare limitations. He purchased Humana’s advantage policy called “HUMANACHOICE” PPO, which includes unlimited hospitalization and rehabilitation coverage. Unfortunately, as of today, Humana has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that Michael purchased a plan with unlimited hospitalization and rehabilitation coverage. Rather, Humana claims Michael is only entitled to coverage in the Medicare guidelines. Michael is disputing Humana’s position.
While Michael is disputing Humana’s position that he has limited hospitalization, Humana initially refused to transfer Michael to a Skilled Nursing Facility and claimed Michael should just be sent home. At this point the hospital staff proposed the option of dropping Humana and going direct with only Medicare. The hospital staff said that dropping Humana would guarantee Michael’s admittance to a Skilled Nursing Facility. Armed with two doctors’ letters from the hospital, Humana ultimately approved Michael to be sent to a Skilled Nursing Facility, but only for a limited time. Thus, Michael has been removed from the rehabilitation hospital under protest, and now is placed in a Skilled Nursing Facility.
After a few weeks at the Skilled Nursing Facility, Humana is now denying coverage of the Skilled Nursing Facility and want to send him home.
In short, Humana is fighting Michael on two fronts, all while Michael is focused on his biggest fight – recover. The stress and worry associated caused by Humana is affecting Michael’s recovery. Michael needs your help.
Michael’s rehab is and has been very painful, scary and at times overwhelming. In addition to a daily regimen of PT, OT, other specialized therapies, he is in need of a massive amount of various expense life saving drugs. Michael is also dealing with a substantial sometimes-overwhelming amount paper work, ongoing insurance claims and denials, plus the subsequent legal issues of those insurance denials. And his expenses mount by the day.
According to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation the yearly expense for someone with a spinal cord injury like Michael’s (Tetraplegia) after the first year is $184,891. Many expenses and treatments are simply not covered at all: home modifications for a wheelchair; specialize bed for turning at night; bathroom modifications for bathing; ongoing out-of-network healthcare needs; and the best rehab he can get. As he is still hospitalized currently, his path is to come home. Initially he will require 24-hour nursing and care. Every day he progresses a little further. Paralysis and no feeling in his core make this unfathomably hard and slow work. It is his hope to regain his everyday freedom and independence: cooking, bathing, driving, and living his best life.
Michael is a resilient man who has overcome a lot of obstacles in life. He lost the mother of his children to cancer 14 years ago. His only daughter Caitlin was born with a heart condition where she was only a few days old when she had her first of over a dozen surgeries. All of these obstacles have made Michael a stronger man; a better man. He is a fighter who will always come out on the other side. If anyone can climb this mountain, it is Michael.
Michael deserves the best. We created this fund in response to all the messages: from those who have worked with him, acted with him, lived with him, laughed with him, loved him and who want to help him now.
Every single donation will go directly to Michael and will be used for these essential and urgently needed services and therapies for his recovery. We want to ensure he gets the best from our health care system. We want to ensure that he has the best chance to recover to be the best body and best self that he can be. It will be long; and it will be grueling.
Please show him the love. Donate Now.
Thank you for all the kindness, prayers, visits, and positive messages so many of you have sent and shared to Michael. Please keep up this support that helps motivate him. He truly loves hearing from each of you. We promise to keep you updated regularly on Michael’s progress. We know how many people are rooting for him. Lets all climb this new mountain with him.
Let's do this and help Michael regain an independent, active, and beautiful life.
Your donation today will ensure that can happen.
He is a kind, adventurous, wickedly funny, actor, writer, and director whose life changed irremediably on January 3, 2017.
As an avid outdoorsmen, Michael loved his home of Reno, Nevada. You could find Michael taking long walks with his dogs along the rivers of the Sierra Nevada’s and treasured hiking the local mountains with his friends on any given day of the week. Last November after his 65th birthday he climbed to the summit of Mt. Whitney 14,505 feet, a climb he had performed earlier in his youth.
It was 5:30 AM during the extreme winter storm of early January, when on his morning walk to the gym, Michael slipped and fell on a sheet of ice, striking his tailbone and shattering his neck. Instantly, the fall left Michael paralyzed in the street until the EMTs came and rushed him to the hospital.
At the hospital, Michael was unable to feel or move any part of his body below his shoulders, except for his left thumb and a slight wiggle in his toes. The doctor diagnosed him with Acute Traumatic Central Cord Syndrome and he needed a very high-risk surgery the next day. His c3, c4, c5, and c,6 disks were highly compressed together and needed synthetic discs replacements and bolts to stabilize his neck. While some nerves are severely damaged or severed, some are still fully intact. This means there is room for growth and a regain of movement for him, but only with extensive rehab and care.
Fortunately, Michael purchased a Medicare supplement plan specifically for the extra protection beyond Medicare limitations. He purchased Humana’s advantage policy called “HUMANACHOICE” PPO, which includes unlimited hospitalization and rehabilitation coverage. Unfortunately, as of today, Humana has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that Michael purchased a plan with unlimited hospitalization and rehabilitation coverage. Rather, Humana claims Michael is only entitled to coverage in the Medicare guidelines. Michael is disputing Humana’s position.
While Michael is disputing Humana’s position that he has limited hospitalization, Humana initially refused to transfer Michael to a Skilled Nursing Facility and claimed Michael should just be sent home. At this point the hospital staff proposed the option of dropping Humana and going direct with only Medicare. The hospital staff said that dropping Humana would guarantee Michael’s admittance to a Skilled Nursing Facility. Armed with two doctors’ letters from the hospital, Humana ultimately approved Michael to be sent to a Skilled Nursing Facility, but only for a limited time. Thus, Michael has been removed from the rehabilitation hospital under protest, and now is placed in a Skilled Nursing Facility.
After a few weeks at the Skilled Nursing Facility, Humana is now denying coverage of the Skilled Nursing Facility and want to send him home.
In short, Humana is fighting Michael on two fronts, all while Michael is focused on his biggest fight – recover. The stress and worry associated caused by Humana is affecting Michael’s recovery. Michael needs your help.
Michael’s rehab is and has been very painful, scary and at times overwhelming. In addition to a daily regimen of PT, OT, other specialized therapies, he is in need of a massive amount of various expense life saving drugs. Michael is also dealing with a substantial sometimes-overwhelming amount paper work, ongoing insurance claims and denials, plus the subsequent legal issues of those insurance denials. And his expenses mount by the day.
According to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation the yearly expense for someone with a spinal cord injury like Michael’s (Tetraplegia) after the first year is $184,891. Many expenses and treatments are simply not covered at all: home modifications for a wheelchair; specialize bed for turning at night; bathroom modifications for bathing; ongoing out-of-network healthcare needs; and the best rehab he can get. As he is still hospitalized currently, his path is to come home. Initially he will require 24-hour nursing and care. Every day he progresses a little further. Paralysis and no feeling in his core make this unfathomably hard and slow work. It is his hope to regain his everyday freedom and independence: cooking, bathing, driving, and living his best life.
Michael is a resilient man who has overcome a lot of obstacles in life. He lost the mother of his children to cancer 14 years ago. His only daughter Caitlin was born with a heart condition where she was only a few days old when she had her first of over a dozen surgeries. All of these obstacles have made Michael a stronger man; a better man. He is a fighter who will always come out on the other side. If anyone can climb this mountain, it is Michael.
Michael deserves the best. We created this fund in response to all the messages: from those who have worked with him, acted with him, lived with him, laughed with him, loved him and who want to help him now.
Every single donation will go directly to Michael and will be used for these essential and urgently needed services and therapies for his recovery. We want to ensure he gets the best from our health care system. We want to ensure that he has the best chance to recover to be the best body and best self that he can be. It will be long; and it will be grueling.
Please show him the love. Donate Now.
Thank you for all the kindness, prayers, visits, and positive messages so many of you have sent and shared to Michael. Please keep up this support that helps motivate him. He truly loves hearing from each of you. We promise to keep you updated regularly on Michael’s progress. We know how many people are rooting for him. Lets all climb this new mountain with him.
Let's do this and help Michael regain an independent, active, and beautiful life.
Your donation today will ensure that can happen.
Organizer
Michael J. Cutt
Organizer
Reno, NV
