
Recent Hickory Double Amputee Needs Support
Donation protected
My name is Richard Eansor. I moved to Hickory, NC in April 2019 to be closer to family and find a better life. I was doing very well and had developed a very good reputation doing home repair and improvement work. In March of this year I began to feel very congested and fatigued, but I thought it was just allergies or a cold or mild flu. As my symptoms got worse over the course a few weeks, I ultimately called Lyft to take me to the hospital since I knew I wouldn't be able to drive. I have very little memory of anything beyond the phone call until after I came out of a coma 3 weeks later with my legs amputated. I'm told that I suffered several cardiac arrests and that the doctors didn't expect me to live. I came to find out from the doctors and my family that I had somehow contracted strep pneumoniae, a very, very nasty bacterial infection, that had gone septic. This is the same bacteria that caused the amputation and death of that Broadway star recently, and also what killed Muppet creator Jim Henson several years ago. I have been in the hospital for just under three months, and am recovering fairly well. I am currently undergoing physical therapy to strengthen my body and to learn how to live in a very different way. I am trying my hardest to make the best of this situation. It actually could have turned out much worse.
I need financial help because I will no longer be able to use the skills I have acquired and honed over the last 30 years to make a living. I hope to go back to school and find a different career that I can do from a wheelchair or hopefully prosthetics, eventually. Thank you.
Organizer
Richard Eansor
Organizer
Hickory, NC