Support Stephen Kilgore's Stroke Recovery

Hello everyone, my name is Don Kilgore and I’m Stephen Kilgore’s big brother.

We’ve put together a GoFundMe account for Stephen, Jenna, and Isla Kilgore as there has been such an outpouring of love and requests on how to best help him and his family after the unthinkable happened Tuesday afternoon, February 4th, 2025. For those who haven’t heard, Stephen suffered a basilar stroke while at work at the age of only 39.

As a background and summary, Stephen is a Doctor of Physical Therapy in the Pittsburgh area, which he obtained after graduating Mercer JR/SR High School in 2004, then Slippery Rock University for undergraduate, and finally Marymount University. After graduation, he began work at Bodies in Motion PT in Fairfax, VA before moving back to PA and continuing his career at Elite Physical Therapy and Wellness in Belle Vernon. On Tuesday, while at work, he began acting strangely and was unable to communicate. The office jumped into action quickly and got him in an ambulance to the hospital. Hours after arriving at Jefferson Hospital, he was life-flighted to UPMC Presbyterian where it was confirmed Stephen had a stroke and he was in heart failure. Stephen and his family have had an incredibly long and hard 5 days, and the hard work will be continuing. Stephen’s heart continues to be in a-fib as there are clots and it can’t be shocked back into rhythm. He has an inoperable clot in one of the arteries off the basilar artery that they cannot operate on. So, we are believing for full absorption so that blood flow and glucose can begin to get back to that portion of the left side of the brain. Doctors are working to try to keep his heart rate under control and the blood pressure a little high to keep blood flowing.

Right now, he doesn’t have use of his right arm, his right leg is semi-functional, his face has slight paralysis on the right, and he is having trouble with some aspects of speech.

Yesterday, February 8th, 2025, PT came and Steve was able to take three assisted steps and he has been able to sit for short periods of time. They are pushing for him to get into an inpatient rehab early this week for a minimum of 5 days to weeks+, depending on how he progresses and if they can keep his heart rate and blood pressure in line.

The costs for Stephen and Jenna are already well over the family deductible of $13,000 on his insurance. In addition, there are daily parking, gas, and hospital food costs. There will also be lots of unexpected costs associated with helping Stephen adjust to the journey back to health.

Currently, his family lives in an apartment with the only bathroom and bedrooms on the second level. Stephen won’t be able to navigate those stairs, so there is a strong probability that they will need to move within the coming weeks.

Many people are asking how they can help and taking some of these financial stressors off of them as they work towards Stephen’s recovery would be of huge assistance.

We will try to post updates here as we have them.