Support Kathy's Husband's Stroke Recovery

My name is Kathy and I'm starting this fundraiser because my husband John suffered multiple medical emergencies in early December 2024.

I am so lucky I was working from home because he was upstairs in our house when he suffered a stroke and fell down a flight of stairs. I heard the crash and rushed to the front hall. I found John at the foot of the stairs bleeding badly from a severe head wound. I called 911 and applied pressure, talking to him and trying to stay calm while waiting for the police and ambulance. It was after he was assessed in the trauma unit at the hospital that we were told he had suffered a stroke and (to our surprise) a heart attack a few days prior. We had no idea, he didn’t really have any symptoms, just a pain in his back that he attributed to a pinched nerve. They also discovered that his carotid artery was 95% blocked and he had major blockage in his heart as well. They also diagnosed him with high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. We were stunned.

John spent almost a month in the stroke trauma unit as they had to treat the stroke first, open his carotid artery/place a stent to keep it open and to treat the head wound and severe concussion. He needed an embolization to stop the bleeding in his forehead as well. The swelling and bruising were unimaginable.

Thank goodness the stroke wasn’t severe but John is now having to go through speech, physical and occupational therapy.

He was released to go home and await the heart procedure(s), now scheduled for this month. Hopefully he won’t need more than one.

I had to take a leave of absence from my job to be present at the hospital as John’s advocate due to the stroke and head trauma and to be a full-time caregiver since he’s been home. Managing his care, prescriptions, meds and appointments is now my full time job.

The out-of-pocket medical costs are overwhelming. We have over $10,000 in bills due now, with more to come. If we get some support we may need to raise our goal as more bills arrive.

John is working very hard to rehab from the stroke and will be needing cardiac rehab as well. We never saw this coming. He had lost weight, but chalked it up to his physical job never realizing he was diabetic. He was always tired but again, physical work explained that. We had no idea his heart was only working at 30%. He was distracted but we figured it was stress, not a blocked carotid artery. This was a helluva wake up call but we are so very lucky this wasn’t worse.

We appreciate everyone who has helped us and are so grateful for any and all support. Please share and donate if you can. Thank you so much.