Support George's Recovery from Spinal Cord Injury

Support George's Journey to Recovery from a Devastating Spinal Cord Injury!

For the past 10 months, George has been facing the biggest challenge of his life. On December 19th, 2022 George began to feel unwell at home due to what he thought was Covid. While he was sitting on the couch trying to take a Covid test, he reached to turn on a lamp and in doing so, began to feel lightheaded and fell off the couch. He hit his head on the ottoman in front of him which ultimately resulted in a broken neck. This left him with an incomplete C6 spinal cord injury. Those unfamiliar with Spinal Cord Injury- a C6 injury results in immobilization of the legs, lower abdomen and full use of hands. George had to undergo surgery where two steel rods were screwed into his vertebrae to stabilize the spinal cord.

This surgery returned sensation to his arms and hands however it did not return it to his legs and he has been unable to walk since. He didn’t have Covid but he did have the flu; infectious material spread to stents in his heart from major heart surgery he had 15 years prior. This led to open heart surgery just a few weeks after the spinal cord surgery. He spent several months last winter in intensive care facing multiple infections and setbacks. One of the setbacks being mandatory sternal precautions a patient faces after open heart surgery- not being able to lift arms, etc. This prolonged the spinal cord injury road to recovery in terms of physical therapy.

We are grateful George is much more stable now but unfortunately, George is still unable to walk and is wheelchair bound; his home is not handicap accessible, and until he is able to regain more strength in his upper body or walk again, he must reside at an assisted living center. George will be starting intensive physical therapy soon at Journey Forward in Canton, with the goal of being able to walk again. This program is not covered by insurance and must be paid out-of-pocket ($110-$150/hour). The medical expenses over the past 10 months have been exhausting so we are humbly asking for help to alleviate some of the financial burden that George will face over the predicted 2-3 years of recovery. However, the first year after SCI can be a window of time for optimal recovery, this is why he needs the best physical therapy now. We are hopeful that with his resilience, and continued physical rehabilitation he can regain more function and work towards independent living. Thank you to all that have continued to visit, send messages, and share your support with George.

Help George be able to walk the family dog (Nash), play guitar, and go fishing again! We appreciate the support more than you know.

His daughters,

Kayla & Lauren