Urgent assistance for Loredana Gallelli

Urgent request for assistance for my mother, Loredana Gallelli, and my father Phil Gallelli aka Prahlad Priya dasa (ACBSP).

In October of 2022, my mother suffered a life-threatening illness which has left her paralyzed and completely blind. After several visits to the Emergency Room, Doctors determined the cause to be a rare and severe side effect from a medication she had taken for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The medical syndrome is called PRES. (Posterior Reversible Encephalitis Syndrome.)

In simple terms: Blood pressure elevates to uncontrollable levels

which causes excruciating headaches that lead to major swelling in her brain, leaving her incapacitated. Doctors admitted her immediately and began emergency treatment to reduce the swelling.

To our shock and dismay, two days after being admitted to the hospital,

she woke up paralyzed on her right side, and blind in both eyes.

She was treated in the hospital for three weeks and then discharged to a skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility - still paralyzed and blind. After one week in the nursing home, she contracted a blood infection forcing her back into the hospital for another three weeks after which she was released back to the nursing home. The situation was touch and go for a while, and we were unsure if she would survive. Understanding the severity of the situation, my siblings flew in thinking we would be saying our goodbyes.

Miraculously, she fought through. Doctors have determined that there has been a permanent injury to the brain, however, she is remarkably now fully cognitive.

It has now been more than 120 days. Mom struggles day in and day out trying to learn how to walk again amongst other occupational therapies, while at the same time, trying the best she can to cope emotionally with being permanently blind. Although her eyesight may never come back, we can see that with proper care and treatment - she may become mobile again.

Since mid-October, my father has refused to leave her side in both the hospital and nursing home often sleeping on the floor next to her. He has now become her full-time caregiver. My mother and father have been married for 30 years and have raised 7 children and 2 grandchildren together.

She now requires continuous long-term physical and occupational therapy, and around-the-clock nursing (in our situation, not covered by Medicare and insurance.)

She will need special equipment for day-to-day activities. These include but are not limited to: A wheelchair, daily walker, bedside commode, handicap-accessible vehicle, visual aids, training and counseling for her blindness, seeing-eye dog, and so much more.

My mother and father are unable to continue the jobs that they have had for some years, and subsist on their small income from their social security.

Currently, they have no permanent residence. We are trying to find a safe, handicap-equipped place for them to live. We anticipate it will be a minimum of 9-12 months until she heals enough for further mobility, and range of motion. So far we have managed with help from a handful of family members, but it is becoming extensively more difficult to financially provide her with the care that she needs.

In 1975, my mother personally received direct instruction from her spiritual teacher, Srila Prabhupada. He said, “May you have many children and raise them in Krishna consciousness." She has successfully fulfilled that instruction.

We are confident that with the proper treatment and facilities, she can still have a reasonably normal life.

We cannot fix the problems arising from this tragedy, however, any assistance may allow her to live a higher quality of life moving forward.

We appeal to our friends, well-wishers, and those who may not even know us personally to assist us through this most difficult time.  

Making a request like this is very difficult, and I have waited until the situation has become untenable. Please know that any assistance offered will be used solely for her recovery.  Thank you endlessly for your time and consideration.  May God bless you.

The link is below.