Rick Johns Recovery & Support
On October 6th our Dad, Rick Johns, suffered a debilitating and unexpected stroke, leaving him unable to walk and move properly with paralysis on one side of his body, and unable to speak coherently. We are still learning the full extent of the damage the stroke has caused.
We are absolutely devastated, as our dad has spent his life extremely active. He retired from the construction industry, was a rough neck on an oil rig, worked at a newspaper printing press when he was young, and even drove a milk truck at one point in his life! (There are too many jobs to list them all!) Just one week ago he was chopping wood for the winter, picking pomegranates to make his very own juice, pickling asparagus and canning peppers, and fishing night and day. Rick is a husband of 35 years, father, and grandfather (Papa to the kids) who provides and works hard for his family, and has done so all his life. Through all the hardships in his life (traumatic brain injury when he was younger, back surgery, shoulder surgeries, having his gallbladder removed, and countless other hardships) our dad has never given up or lost sight of who he is. Rick Johns is the definition of a good, hard working man and we hope to see him back to health as soon as possible and doing what he loves.
The road to recovery will be a long and difficult one though. The doctors are telling us he will be moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility for a while as they plan on implementing an aggressive rehabilitation program and focus on regaining his movement and speech. As you can imagine, this will be an incredible financial burden on our family. We know he will need a lot of therapy, and home modifications to accommodate his needs. Our mom will have to take time off work to provide care for him, and medical expenses are expected to be astronomical.
Our dad is a tough guy, and we know he will make it through this hurdle just like he has with all the others in his life, but your help would take a load of stress off of him and our family during this time. We want them to be able to focus on our dad’s recovery and not the mountain of bills that will soon be piling up. We need your help to help our mom and dad! Thank you!
- Gina and Melodie (Rick’s Daughters)
