Kirk's Story

Hello All.

Our dear friend, Kirk Fitzgerald, aka Fitz, Fitty, Captain or Captain Kirk has recently been on a medical journey and needs our support. I think we all can say Kirk has helped us all out at least once in our time of needs.

It started back on June 13th 2023, when Kirk suffered a stroke that sent him to the ICU. Kirk spent a month in ICU, while not being able to use his right side of his body. He was unable to walk, sit up, or eat on his own. Kirk a feeding tube and was on oxygen while in ICU. The doctors and nurses watched him closely for signs of another stroke. While in ICU, he developed aspiration pneumonia which was a setback.

In mid-July, Kirk was moved from the ICU unit to the rehab hospital. He had physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy.

After receiving lots of rehabs in July, Kirk was released to go home in August. His wife, Betsy, and his oldest daughter, Natalie, were trained to continue his rehab with him and show him how to use various equipment. Kirk was still unable to use his right side of his body and still had a feeding tube.

In September. Kirk was cleared to have small amounts of puréed food for the first time in 4 months.

In November, Kirk and family met with his cardiologist and found out that he was born with a hole in his heart which caused his stoke in June.

Then, in December, Kirk goes in for a successful and quick heart surgery to repair the hole in his heart!

This brings us to February 2024.

Kirk is eating just about anything that he wants, from Pizza Hut Pizza, Hall’s Chicago burgers, to jellybeans. Although he is still unable to use his right side, or walk, he is making progress over all of these months each and every day.

His vision seems to be good, his quick wit, sarcasm and story telling are as good as ever, if not better. He is excited to keep moving forward and get back up on his feet.

He has an upcoming appointment with ENT for an implant for his vocal cord paralysis. Which was damaged during the stroke.

Kirk does not know when or if he will be able to return to work. And if does return to work it won’t be in the same capacity as before the stroke. Kirk is still waiting to hear back from Medicaid and Social Security.

Kirk’s wife and kids are trying their best to keep up with everything financially because of Kirk’s increasing medical bills and the fact that Kirk is no longer able to work. It has been very difficult to make ends meet. Let’s come together and show our support and help out our friend and his family!!!

Our goal is 50,000, which will help Kirk’s family out so much!!

~John Sanders