Stephanie’s Brain Surgery Expenses

On Thursday, January 5th, my sister (Stephanie Popp Kerkenbush) suffered a severe brain aneurysm along with a stroke at her home. She was rushed by ambulance from Platteville to UW hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, where she underwent emergency surgery to stop the bleed from her brain. Stephanie's aneurysm was so large that it took up almost the entire left side of her brain. We were told at the time that her survival rate was very poor because 80% of people who suffer this kind of brain bleed would fall asleep and not wake up. But by the grace of God, she survived the surgery. Doctors removed almost half of her skull to fix the bleed and allow her brain to swell. Leaving her skull section out, her head was sealed back up with 58 staples. She then proceeded to spend the next 17 days at UW hospital, many of which were spent in intensive care.

Due to the sheer size of the bleed, it has impacted her in many ways. After intense physical therapy, she has regained her ability to walk and maintain balance. She has had to wear a helmet as it is the only thing protecting her brain since she is currently still missing half of her skull. Her speech was affected the most from her aneurysm and therefore she has been in speech therapy twice a week and will continue to need speech therapy for many months so that she can relearn how to talk, read, write, and also work on her memory loss. She will need to have therapy with a psychologist to help her with her PTSD that she has suffered from such a sudden, traumatic event.

Stephanie has been extremely touched and very moved by the amount of loving support received by everyone throughout this time, but she is not out of the woods quite yet. On March 9th, she will undergo a second surgery where they will open her head back up and put her skull back in followed by months, if not years, of continued therapy to get back to a more normal cognitive function. In the meantime, she is taking her half bald head in stride and fully understands that she is just lucky to be alive and her hair will eventually grow back. She even tries to put in a little bow from time to time on her remaining hair just to spice it up a little.

Stephanie lives with her fiancé, Eric, and their children. She will forever credit her loving fiancé for saving her life back on January 5th. He knew something wasn't right with her and took her straight to the emergency room which then got everything rolling. Eric has done an amazing job caring for her at home, including certain remodels of a house they just got to make it safer for Steph to navigate through while nursing a brain injury. All of this has unfortunately pulled him away from his job and he still has to take even more work off to go to appointments with her. It has taken a big toll on them financially. In addition to all of the hospital costs, she will need many more speech and physical therapy visits than what insurance will cover to get back to the Steph we all know and love. Our family is seeking assistance to help with all of these expenses for them so that Eric and Stephanie can focus on the most important thing…her recovery.

We would like to thank you for any financial help you can offer to them. We feel blessed to have her and look forward to getting our Steph back in the months and years to come. God bless!

Then…

Now…

Always…