REBUILD THE BRAIN: Help Rudy Find His Way Home

REBUILDING THE BRAIN: HELP RUDY FIND HIS WAY HOME

30 days ago, my sister’s life changed forever. Jen came home to find Rudy, her 55-year-old fit and healthy husband of 33 years, unconscious and unresponsive. Rudy had suffered a stage 4 subarachnoid hemorrhage – a rare type of brain aneurysm – and was immediately life-flighted to Richmond’s top neurosurgery unit for brain surgery. The doctors told her to expect the worst. It was rare people survived this kind of massive event.  
 
Rudy survived, but his way of life did not. He will need intensive physical and occupational therapy to regain the use of his body, and to retrain his brain to do even small everyday things like use the bathroom and dress himself. He will also need cognitive and speech therapies to help him make new neuropathways so he can learn to communicate, recall information, and participate in the world around him. Rehab will be a long and difficult road.

In a particularly cruel twist, Rudy and Jen had recently celebrated a happy, life-changing event. After 25 years at the same company running commercial plumbing jobs, Rudy had taken the leap and accepted a fantastic opportunity at a new company – more money, more growth opportunities, and more of the kind of work he loved doing. He was managing large, complex commercial jobsites and crews all around the Richmond area. He was happy, and life was good.

He was at his new position 3 weeks when the brain aneurysm happened. Three weeks is still within the employee trial period, so the new company was unable to extend his salary or to provide healthcare benefits. He was given 2 weeks of pay, and then they had to let him go.

Rudy had COBRA from his previous employer, so partial healthcare is covered for a very limited time. But Rudy and Jen now have no primary income, massive health care bills, and intensive in-patient rehabilitation.

I need to add here that Rudy is very much the heart of my extended family, and in his own. He has the sweetest, most generous soul, and an optimism that absolutely shines. In the face of anything, and everything, Rudy has always overcome the odds. This is a man that loves life, and loves work, and truly lives for his family. His life with Jen, their 4 children, and 5 grandchildren is the only life he ever wanted to live. Family is everything. Home is his heart.  

I went to visit him last week and looked in his eyes, and I still see him there – that sweetness, that man, is still there. His neuro-team and the rehab specialists have faith in him and his recovery. He is young, and began this journey in peak physical condition. With patience, hard work, and massive amounts of support, Rudy can find his way back – maybe not to the same life, but one very much worth fighting for. One surrounded by love.  

Our family could use all the help we can get to get Rudy where he needs to be. Please consider doing anything you can to help. Together, we can help get Rudy the care he needs.

We ask this humbly, and with great gratitude…from my sister Jen, and from every single member of this big, beautiful family.