Support Jose's Road to SCI Recovery

Hi everyone, my name is Brittanie and I am asking for help for my family as we navigate an extremely hard time in our life.

My husband Jose and I have 5 kids ranging from 14 to 9 months and on 3/26/24 our lives totally flipped upside down. Jose had been complaining of back pain and what we had thought were muscle spasms. We got off work and went to pick up 2 of our sons from daycare, when Jose started feeling "Charlie horses" in his sides. He sat down in the front lobby for a moment and thought it was feeling some better so we walked outside, where the pain got much more intense, he leaned against a brick wall and squatted down for some relief and when he immediately collapsed and felt a ripping pain in his stomach and began losing feeling in his legs. Within 30 minutes he was totally numb from the waist down. 911 was called and he was transported to WakeMed ED where they did CT scans, MRIs, and X-Rays where they found from his neck to his tail bone he had severe swelling in his spinal cord and severe disk herniation from his cervical spine through his lumbar spine and spinal stenosis in his lumbar spine. The ER began steroid treatment to try and reduce the swelling in his spinal cord in hopes that that would help reverse the paralysis, however, after 12 hours there was no improvement of his condition. We spoke with the Neurosurgeon at 8am on 3/27, where he told us the herniation and swelling was so severe in his spinal cord that he had to have emergency surgery. He had a T9-T12 Bilateral decompression laminectomy, and fusion.

After surgery, Jose spent 2 weeks in the Neuro ICU and Surgical Trauma units, and then on 4/11 he was approved to move to WakeMed Rehabilitation Hospital, where he has been ever since. The doctors said that we have a long road to recovery ahead of us. He is doing great with Physical and Occupational therapy - but unfortunately still does not have use or sensations of his legs.

We never ask for help and hate to even have to ask for any kind of help but have found ourself in a really hard, seemingly impossible situation. Jose is not currently able to work, and I am working as much as I can between running for 5 kids, traveling between the hospital and home, but am really struggling. We have totally depleted our savings the past month between the unexpected expenses, having to travel back and forth between the hospital and home, and paying bills that Joses income would typically cover. Now we are faced with Insurance not covering all of the things that Jose is going to need to come home.

We are looking at him being discharged from rehab in 5 weeks, but in order for that to happen we have to have our home wheelchair accessible to pass the home study. To do this, we have to have a 16' ramp installed. Our latest quote to have that done, was $4,500 to buy the ramp, and $1,000 for installation.

Insurance also does not cover bathroom needs: bedside commode, shower chair, etc. or any nurse or aide to come to the house and help care for him as I try to continue working my full time job, while also caring for our youngest two (2 and 9 months) as we will be losing daycare. 

We also have to purchase a new bed that is height adjustable for Jose to be able to transfer out of bed into a wheelchair, which runs between $5,000 and $8,000.

Last but not least, transportation. There are only 2 places in the US that modify existing vehicles by installing wheelchair ramps on the side or in the back of your vehicle. However, we would have to go months without a vehicle for this to happen, and it costs anywhere from $10,000-$30,000 depending on the structural changes needed to our van. Jose's amazing recreational therapist found a ramp donation that hooks to a trailer hitch on vehicles - it is automatic and will hold his power wheelchair, the only problem is our towing capacity of the van will not hold the ramp, wheelchair, and passengers within the vehicle. So on top of all other expenses we are now faced with also having to find another vehicle with a towing capacity of 8,700+ lbs.

Any donation or help provided would mean the absolute world to us! If you aren't able to donate but know of any financial resources in the state of NC to help with things like this - for private insurance, I would gladly accept those resources as well.

Thank you so much for reading this far. Please keep us in your prayers!