Leo Recovery Fund

Saturday afternoon my Dad, Leo Rossignol, was on a bike ride with a group of friends in Vermont. He fell about 70 feet off of a steep and icy embankment into a ravine on top of a frozen stream. 911 was called and arrived about a half hour later. He was brought to Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital stabilized and then transferred to Dartmouth-Hitchcock. The MRI showed T1 and C7 were sitting nearly side by side. The first priority was to get them back in place so the first surgery was performed that night. After 4 hours, a few spinal fusions, and some hardware we were informed that the surgery went well and we were able to see him. Before the surgery he had practically full strength in his right leg, and right arm, the left hand/arm and leg were weak but there was movement and feeling in all limbs. The Doctors were all very surprised and said they had never seen an injury this bad with any movement in the legs and that he was very lucky! After the first surgery the left arm was moving better than before but the right hand had lost movement. So they had CT scans and an MRI done, after reviewing them the surgeons decided they had to go back in anteriorly to perform a corpectomy on C7. After the second surgery there was movement in both hands although weak at this point, and arm movement is strong, the right leg is the same and strong but movement in the left leg is only gross, there is no moment below the knee and no movement in the foot. Although there is some permanent nerve damage in the left hand due to a nerve bundle being pulled from the spinal cord the rest of the damage is hopefully not permanent.  PT and OT have been very hopeful and impressed!!!!!! Since the surgeries there have been good days and bad days but his Neuro tests and movement in limbs have been steadily increasing. The biggest obstacle right now is his swallowing, unfortunately he hasn't been able to really swallow since Monday meaning he isn't able to get nutrition which is imperative in healing! It also means the rehabilitation hospital won't take him until he is able to eat and take pills orally.

Because Dad is on Medicare as of January, when he turned 65, his insurance is good and will cover MOST medical costs, the reason I am starting this go fund me is to help ease the financial burden that he will face because of his loss of work as well as his family members until he is able to be on his own. This includes paying any normal bills he has until we figure out what this next phase will look like, traveling costs for family members to and from the hospital and the costs of loss of work while being with him in the hospital. He will also have to pay the maximum out of cost co-pays which we think will be around $6,000.  My hope is that home modifications will not have to even be considered because he is such a strong guy and I'm optimistically hopeful that he will make a full recovery, but home modifications are not covered under insurance so if it does come to that any financial help would be a tremendous relief. 

Thank you so much in advance for your well wishes, good thoughts, prayers, healing vibes, hope, and support in this time of sadness.