Please support Lawrence's healing journey
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Hello Everyone,
Thank you so much for visiting the page. I'm a close friend and fellow cyclist of Lawrence's.
Lawrence is a 55-year-old male who suffered a traumatic brain injury, broke his neck, clavicle and scapula due to a cycling accident on August 22, 2019.
Prior to the accident, Lawrence was an avid cyclist (6 days a week: 1-2 hours during the week; 3-4 hours on Saturday and Sunday). He was in great shape, very disciplined, hardworking, great son, brother and friend to many. He worked in the entertainment industry as a Producer and became an advocate of a healthy lifestyle ~ founder of "Sally’s Smart” a Roasted Almond NON-GMO Healthy Snack and was also involved in many organizations to help both adults and kids such as the NATIONAL MS SOCIETY and SHRED KID’S CANCER to name a few.
On August 22, 2019 he was descending on Schueren Road in Los Angeles. We will really never know exactly what happened except that he was riding alone and a bystander who was working on a construction site, saw a truck ascending on the road and then Lawrence went down. If the bystander did not call 911, Lawrence would have not made it. He was airlifted to UCLA ICU and his report shows that if it was five minutes later, Lawrence would not be alive today.
Lawrence’s diagnosis was that he injured the executive part of his brain which greatly affects your cognitive and emotional part of the brain, along with a broken neck, broken clavicle and scapula.
Lawrence was treated by Dr. Paul Vespa and Dr. Manuel Blanco and their team. They both originally said it would be a moment -to- moment situation as far as survival. He was in a coma for four days and then it became a day -to -day situation and he remained in the ICU for two weeks. During that time, the doctors put several stents in his head to help with the swelling of his brain, inserted a breathing tube and a feeding tube. He had numerous MRI’s and lots of CT scans each day to see if the bleeding in his brain had increased. He also had a neck brace and had no use of his left arm as well as no use of his left hand. After two weeks, he was moved outside of the ICU unit, on the same floor to the neuro-section of the hospital where he remained for another three weeks. When he came out of the coma, he could not speak or breathe on his own for several weeks. When the doctors removed the breathing tube, Lawrence was completely delusional and did not know where he was, who he was, had complete memory loss and when he tried to speak, he made no sense. The only thing at this point they could do for him was administering large doses of different drugs to keep him calm and out of pain (oxycodone, trazodone, seroquel to name a few). He did receive a limited amount of PT to get movement in his legs, but he just would be sedated most of the time. He required Professional Health Care sitters 24/7 as he could never be left alone.
After 5 weeks, it was recommended that he be moved to an Acute Rehab and he went to California Rehab in Los Angeles, where he had a neuro therapist, a neuro medical doctor, skilled nurses and therapists daily and continued with 24/7 sitters as he could still not be left alone. He was at Cal Rehab for six weeks and actually started making some progress after about 3 weeks. He could walk supported by staff, was started on drinking slow sips of thick liquids and at the end of his stay, he could eat a pureed diet. He still could not shower or clothe himself, walk alone and had to learn how to feed himself. Up until this point, the Insurance company was taking care of Lawrence with a small co-pay. However, at the end of the six weeks, they said he could no longer stay at the rehab. After weeks of research, we were able to get Lawrence into an outpatient program at Centre for Neuro Skills but that meant he would have to go home, and his wife would take care of him. She handicapped the entire condo, showered, shaved, fed him as well as drive him to and from CNS 5 days a week. Besides his physical condition, he experienced severe brain fog, memory loss, loss of smell and taste and his balance was completely off. His neck did heal so they were able to take off his neck brace at that time. However, he still had very little use of his left arm but weaned off most drugs except for pain for his arm.
After going to CNS five days a week, although the trip to and from made him very car sick due to his brain injury, he did improve. He had cognitive therapy, PT, OT, education, a total of 6 sessions a day along with counseling. During his time there (November 2019 - April 2020 and then reduced to 4 hours telehealth five days a week due to Covid-19 until July, 2020.) Lawrence continued to improve. He was now able to dress himself, his balance improved, able to get around the condo. He still has to be careful when eating and drinking so not to choke, still has brain fog and really cannot be on his own. His inductive and deductive reasoning is at 5% currently.
In August 2020, his insurance company said he no longer could continue at CNS as they only allotted him 100 hours. Since then, he was approved at Cedars Sinai in December 2020 for two 50-minute sessions per week (one PT and one speech) and now that has been discontinued due to Covid-19.
We have been researching neuro therapy for Lawrence, but no one takes insurance. Everything is out of pocket. Lawrence has had no income since August 2019. So, now he is restricted to being mostly at home and does not go out even for a walk by himself due to memory loss and continued brain fog. He obviously cannot even think about driving or getting a job.
Although it has been suggested by friends before, we have now decided to start a fund-raising page for Lawrence to help ease the thought of the future. There are some therapies that can help Lawrence get back to somewhat of a normal life. However, it would take a lot of financial assistance to get him the neuro therapy that is needed and these would require him to pay a minimum of $500 for just an evaluation and then sessions run approximately $350 an hour. According to most therapists, although his future is still largely unknown, he is looking at least another year or so of 5 sessions a week, to possibly get him to be able to go out on his own, hopefully driving and some kind of work/income although he will probably never be able to work in production again.
Any contribution would be humbly appreciated. We are also asking for your continued prayers for Lawrence. Prayer is very powerful, and all your prayers have worked to save Lawrence’s life ~ as it is truly a miracle that he survived this horrific accident.
We truly wish everyone a brighter and healthier 2021 filled with moments of joy and Love.
Much gratitude to all,
Philip Goglia
Thank you so much for visiting the page. I'm a close friend and fellow cyclist of Lawrence's.
Lawrence is a 55-year-old male who suffered a traumatic brain injury, broke his neck, clavicle and scapula due to a cycling accident on August 22, 2019.
Prior to the accident, Lawrence was an avid cyclist (6 days a week: 1-2 hours during the week; 3-4 hours on Saturday and Sunday). He was in great shape, very disciplined, hardworking, great son, brother and friend to many. He worked in the entertainment industry as a Producer and became an advocate of a healthy lifestyle ~ founder of "Sally’s Smart” a Roasted Almond NON-GMO Healthy Snack and was also involved in many organizations to help both adults and kids such as the NATIONAL MS SOCIETY and SHRED KID’S CANCER to name a few.
On August 22, 2019 he was descending on Schueren Road in Los Angeles. We will really never know exactly what happened except that he was riding alone and a bystander who was working on a construction site, saw a truck ascending on the road and then Lawrence went down. If the bystander did not call 911, Lawrence would have not made it. He was airlifted to UCLA ICU and his report shows that if it was five minutes later, Lawrence would not be alive today.
Lawrence’s diagnosis was that he injured the executive part of his brain which greatly affects your cognitive and emotional part of the brain, along with a broken neck, broken clavicle and scapula.
Lawrence was treated by Dr. Paul Vespa and Dr. Manuel Blanco and their team. They both originally said it would be a moment -to- moment situation as far as survival. He was in a coma for four days and then it became a day -to -day situation and he remained in the ICU for two weeks. During that time, the doctors put several stents in his head to help with the swelling of his brain, inserted a breathing tube and a feeding tube. He had numerous MRI’s and lots of CT scans each day to see if the bleeding in his brain had increased. He also had a neck brace and had no use of his left arm as well as no use of his left hand. After two weeks, he was moved outside of the ICU unit, on the same floor to the neuro-section of the hospital where he remained for another three weeks. When he came out of the coma, he could not speak or breathe on his own for several weeks. When the doctors removed the breathing tube, Lawrence was completely delusional and did not know where he was, who he was, had complete memory loss and when he tried to speak, he made no sense. The only thing at this point they could do for him was administering large doses of different drugs to keep him calm and out of pain (oxycodone, trazodone, seroquel to name a few). He did receive a limited amount of PT to get movement in his legs, but he just would be sedated most of the time. He required Professional Health Care sitters 24/7 as he could never be left alone.
After 5 weeks, it was recommended that he be moved to an Acute Rehab and he went to California Rehab in Los Angeles, where he had a neuro therapist, a neuro medical doctor, skilled nurses and therapists daily and continued with 24/7 sitters as he could still not be left alone. He was at Cal Rehab for six weeks and actually started making some progress after about 3 weeks. He could walk supported by staff, was started on drinking slow sips of thick liquids and at the end of his stay, he could eat a pureed diet. He still could not shower or clothe himself, walk alone and had to learn how to feed himself. Up until this point, the Insurance company was taking care of Lawrence with a small co-pay. However, at the end of the six weeks, they said he could no longer stay at the rehab. After weeks of research, we were able to get Lawrence into an outpatient program at Centre for Neuro Skills but that meant he would have to go home, and his wife would take care of him. She handicapped the entire condo, showered, shaved, fed him as well as drive him to and from CNS 5 days a week. Besides his physical condition, he experienced severe brain fog, memory loss, loss of smell and taste and his balance was completely off. His neck did heal so they were able to take off his neck brace at that time. However, he still had very little use of his left arm but weaned off most drugs except for pain for his arm.
After going to CNS five days a week, although the trip to and from made him very car sick due to his brain injury, he did improve. He had cognitive therapy, PT, OT, education, a total of 6 sessions a day along with counseling. During his time there (November 2019 - April 2020 and then reduced to 4 hours telehealth five days a week due to Covid-19 until July, 2020.) Lawrence continued to improve. He was now able to dress himself, his balance improved, able to get around the condo. He still has to be careful when eating and drinking so not to choke, still has brain fog and really cannot be on his own. His inductive and deductive reasoning is at 5% currently.
In August 2020, his insurance company said he no longer could continue at CNS as they only allotted him 100 hours. Since then, he was approved at Cedars Sinai in December 2020 for two 50-minute sessions per week (one PT and one speech) and now that has been discontinued due to Covid-19.
We have been researching neuro therapy for Lawrence, but no one takes insurance. Everything is out of pocket. Lawrence has had no income since August 2019. So, now he is restricted to being mostly at home and does not go out even for a walk by himself due to memory loss and continued brain fog. He obviously cannot even think about driving or getting a job.
Although it has been suggested by friends before, we have now decided to start a fund-raising page for Lawrence to help ease the thought of the future. There are some therapies that can help Lawrence get back to somewhat of a normal life. However, it would take a lot of financial assistance to get him the neuro therapy that is needed and these would require him to pay a minimum of $500 for just an evaluation and then sessions run approximately $350 an hour. According to most therapists, although his future is still largely unknown, he is looking at least another year or so of 5 sessions a week, to possibly get him to be able to go out on his own, hopefully driving and some kind of work/income although he will probably never be able to work in production again.
Any contribution would be humbly appreciated. We are also asking for your continued prayers for Lawrence. Prayer is very powerful, and all your prayers have worked to save Lawrence’s life ~ as it is truly a miracle that he survived this horrific accident.
We truly wish everyone a brighter and healthier 2021 filled with moments of joy and Love.
Much gratitude to all,
Philip Goglia
Organizer and beneficiary
Philip Goglia
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
Lawrence Novitch
Beneficiary