Join Paula's Journey Towards Healing

My name is Jeff Justus. On March 2, 2024 my whole world changed. I found my best friend and wife of nearly 40 years unresponsive in our basement. She was rushed by ambulance to Mercy South in St. Louis. It was found that she had suffered an Intracerebral hemorrhage (a life -threatening type of stroke) caused by a rupture of blood vessels and bleeding within the brain itself. This bleed then prevents cerebral spinal fluid draining from the head which then begins building pressure. Once this was determined, an emergency surgery was performed to put a drain directly into her skull to release the pressure and save her life. Once this drain began to relieve this pressure and by the grace of God, Paula began to wake up. This drain remained for 2 weeks then was removed. The pressure began to build again causing Paula to become unresponsive again. Another surgery placing a permanent shunt in her head and draining to her stomach was placed.

Paula has started to improve since she has had the shunt but, as you can imagine, this has caused Paula extensive brain injury. She spent a total of 4+ weeks in ICU in which time she had her drain, was assessed and began to learn activities again like brushing her hair and teeth, talking and swallowing by doing OT, PT and speech therapy. She had shunt surgery, suffered from extreme neuro fevers and once again had her injuries assessed. Paula spent just a couple days in the step down neurological ICU and then was sent to the neurological floor of the hospital. She continued to work with all 3 therapies and build up her endurance. It was here that she developed a nasty reactive rash from medicine all over her body and to ensure the best outcome for getting nutrients to recover, a G tube was placed into her stomach.

When she finally was able to leave the hospital in April, Paula was transferred to Scenic skilled rehab in Herculaneum, MO in order to build her strength. In skilled rehab Paula has continued to work with the 3 therapies to recover from every injury to her brain. We also celebrated 39 years of marriage.

The hope was to get to Sub Acute neurological rehab to get the intense therapy she needs for recovery. After 6 weeks and many battles with insurance later, we have finally gotten to that point.

On May 20th Paula was transferred to TRISL: The rehabilitation institute of St. Louis which is affiliated with Barnes Jewish Hospital and is supposed to be the best. We have high hopes for our time here.

What can I say about Paula throughout this whole ordeal? SHE IS MY HERO. I can not believe the strength and fight she has and she has so much to fight for. Paula is a wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, teacher, friend, devout Christian and leader. Paula loves her family and children. She thrives being with them any chance she gets. Paula's second family has always been her students. She flourishes in the classroom and has loved being a librarian for Maplewood/ Richmond Heights. Making an impact in the kid's lives is so important to her. She misses her kids terribly. The ultimate joy of Paula's life lately has been her grandchildren and being their grandma.

Every day Paula is a little stronger and does a little more but she is on a LONG road. The goal is to get her strong enough to go home to continue her work to once again being the independent person she is.

As you can imagine this will all come with a price. If you are able to support Paula, her rehab and recovery, we would appreciate it. This is one of those circumstances that will take a village.

Thank you.