Joe Klinefelter's Road to Recovery

Our Family Story

My name is Tanya Klinefelter, and I am writing to share my family's story and ask for your help. For those who don’t know, my parents are Donna and Joe Klinefelter. They met at 11 and 13 years old at a church in upstate NY, became best friends and have been together ever since (minus a year or 2 when mom went to college and dad joined a traveling carnival). They moved to Cape Cod when I was one year old and soon after had my sister Tasha and brother Jacob. For my entire life, I have watched my parents work around the clock (literally, my mom worked overnights at Stop and Shop while my dad worked all day installing heating and air conditioning). They always put us first and made sure that we had what we needed and somehow made sure that we were always active, whether that was playing sports, local and traveling teams, taking us to the beach, or our yearly trip to Nickerson State Park to go camping. In 2004 they relocated to Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, with Tasha and Jacob. They continued to work their butts off, my mom at Dollar General and my dad continuing in the construction field.

Last year my parents decided to make a change to better set themselves up for retirement. They started a company working in disaster relief in California. They were able to work and travel together, and to be honest, it’s the happiest I’ve ever seen them. With this new company came start-up costs, including two new work trucks and all the equipment they would need to be successful. They also needed to get private insurance, and this past summer, when their rates jumped from $275/month to $1800/month, they had to pause insurance to re-evaluate what worked best for them. During this time, my dad had a terrible accident (details below) that will preclude him from being able to work this new job (or any job at this time), along with my mom being out of work.

The Accident

On Friday, September 16th, my dad was in a severe accident and taken to the ICU at Prisma Richland Health in Columbia, South Carolina. When the accident occurred, he hit his head, and the arthritis in his neck caused part of his spinal cord to crumble. The following day he was taken into surgery, where vertebrae 3-7 were removed from his neck, and the remainder of his spine fused back together. During the surgery, a nerve was nicked, causing cerebrospinal fluid leakage. While the surgeons were able to repair the nerve, the continuous leakage did not allow the nerve to heal as they had hoped. On Wednesday, September 21st, he was taken in for a second surgery. This time the surgeons installed a drain at the bottom of his spine to allow the initial injury to heal. Thankfully this was successful, and on Monday, 9/26, the drain was removed. After 11 days, he was released from the ICU to his own room, where he began physical therapy. Once we receive permission from the doctors, Dad will be relocated to an in-patient rehabilitation center. As everyone’s journey to recovery is different, we do not know how long he needs to be in the facility. It was a miracle that he was not paralyzed, and we are very grateful for that, but his road to recovery will be a long one for all of us.

What the Family is Doing and What We Need Help With

As both of my parents have lost their jobs, my brother, sister and I are working to help them dissolve their company, sell their trucks and other assets that can help cover the medical expenses and pay their monthly household bills. We have also applied for disability and Medicaid and are looking into other scholarships and charities that may be able to help families in our situation. While we are not the ones to ask for outside help, we realize this is an extreme situation bigger than us. In addition to medical, rehab and household bills, we will need to modify parts of the house for his return home, such as replacing the tub with a walk-in shower. We appreciate any help that you may be able to offer, whether it be monetary, advice, or prayers