Support Anita Simic's Healing Journey

At the end of December 2024, long-time Sitkan Anita Simic experienced an internal carotid artery dissection in her neck, forming a blood clot that caused her to have a CVA or stroke. Anita and her husband Clint were medevacked to Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage and spent 9 days in the Intensive Care and Medical/Surgical Units. Her injury resulted in expressive aphasia, resulting in difficulty constructing sentences, finding certain words and needing to speak slowly. As a 24+ years elementary school teacher and librarian in Sitka, this is a particularly devastating injury.

After 15 days of intensive inpatient rehabilitation at St. Elias Specialty Hospital with Speech Language Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Occupational Therapy, she continued these therapies as an outpatient in Anchorage for an additional 9 weeks. Anita has worked very hard to make the progress that she has, but is still in need of further long-term therapy. She continues to be optimistic and motivated to continue the work needed to improve.

As you can imagine, this puts a considerable amount of financial strain on a family with the substantial co-pays, loss of income and out-of-pocket expenses that come with an extended medical stay away from home. A significant portion of her continued therapy will need to be paid for out-of-pocket.

When tragedies happen to people in our community, we often feel helpless and would give anything to ease the burden for them and their family. When talking to the family about reaching out to others, they agreed that allowing friends, family and colleagues to provide financial support, genuinely allows others to help ease the burden, and allow Anita and family to focus on and optimize her healing.

Thank you for considering joining Anita's support team! Any amount will be met with gratitude!