Crawford Family Relief Fund

The past year has become one that our family thought we would never experience. At the end of May 2014, my father Michael fell from a 30 ft extension ladder while he was cutting down tree limbs at our Blue Ridge residence. He was rushed to Fannin County Emergency Room and then transported to a Trauma Center in Chattanooga, TN. He sustained a broken pelvis, hip, 5 fractured ribs, and a torn left rotator cuff tendon, labrum and biceps. Since this accident and even after numerous doctors visits, he has had a difficult time trying to return to work in the construction industry. This has made it very hard for our family and throughout it we have been dedicated in supporting each other.

This Friday, we were hit with even more heartache. My mom and sister Nina came home to find that something was scarily wrong with my dad. The furniture was all over the place, papers all over the floor and broken glass in the kitchen. My mom found him laying on their bed with cuts and bruises all over him and his face misshapen. His speech was slurred, his balance was severely off and he was in a high state of confusion. He had fallen down in the bathroom and hit his head on the counter just hours before. He tried walking around the house and continued to fall several more times. He had even tried taking the trash out where he then fell down the hill, hitting his head on a tree and falling several more times while trying to carry himself back up the hill to the safety of our home.

My mother and sister carried him to the car and immediately rushed him to emergency care where he received an EKG, a CT scan, several X-rays and an MRI. Finally around midnight Friday, we received confirmation that my father had a stroke. Worse than we could have ever imagined.

At 5:30 am Saturday morning, they had him transferred to Northside Hospital in Sandy Springs. There they ran several more tests, only to narrow it down to being labelled as an Ischemic Stroke. Unfortunately we still have no definitive answers.

My father is 53 years old. He is far too young to have a stroke. He has been our biggest supporter, but now the roles have changed and we are trying to do anything and everything we can to get him back to the healthy happy dad we know and love. Needless to say, he has been unable to return to work and the only income our family has is from my mom working for Fulton Co Schools as a Data Clerk.

I want the best for my family and I want/try to help them in every way I can. However, I can only do so much as their 23 year old daughter. I would appreciate any help you can give my family in this very hard emotional, physical and financial time.