Lend a Hand to Lonny

Late on Saturday January 5th, one of the worlds greatest guys, Lonny, suffered a massive stroke. Earlier that night, he was in his spare bedroom watching football and was later found unresponsive and brought by ambulance to Essentia Hospital in Fargo. After an MRI and some tests, he went into emergency surgery after learning from the tests that he had suffered a stroke on his right side and had a blood clot in his brain. They removed most of the clot but a small portion was lost and went to the left side of his brain. Due to his anatomy, they were unable to get it out initially during the surgery. He was administered TPA and brought to the Critical care unit where he spent the next two weeks. At the start, he was experiencing global aphasia which is caused by damage to the left side of the brain, that affects receptive and expressive language skills so he couldn’t comprehend words or speak to others. He was also unable to move his right side nor  respond to commands such as “grab my hand” or “wiggle your toes”.. Over those 2 weeks in the hospital and with help from PT, OT,  and speech therapy, he was able to get 4-5 words out and slightly move his right foot. 

Fast forward to now, 3 weeks later, he is residing at Bethany nursing home in the transitional care unit, doing 3+ hours a day of various rehabilitations trying to regain some of his independence back with the hope that he will eventually be able to make it home at some point. This will be an extremely long, but not impossible, road for Lonny as he tries to regain his voice and his body strength. The medical team originally estimated 90+ days of intense therapies here at Bethany. So far, he is rocking it! He is *slightly* able to speak several more words when asked a question or when given cues. He has been working to regain movements on his right side and has shown small improvements as the days have gone by. We are very hopeful he will continue to show progress in the coming days. 

Unfortunately, because Lonny was 100% independent and in good health before this heart attack and stroke, this was a shock to him and his family. We need him to be able to continue his rehabilitation to be able to get him home someday (hopefully soon), however, a lot of the fees will be out of pocket for him. This money will Not only help with unexpected medical costs, but will allow him to continue to stay in the transition care unit and receive these required therapies to get him back on his feet (literally), talking again, and back home! Thank you so much in advance for all your love and support!