Walt's Recovery Fund

On January 9, 2021, Walt’s Fiancé Megan had noticed he was not acting right, tripping over things, falling in the bathroom and not being able to hold onto certain things.  She quickly took him to Newark Wayne Community Hospital. After running numerous tests, they soon realized Walt had an Acute right MCA Stroke. There was nothing more they could do for him there, so that same night they took him by ambulance to Rochester Regional Health. When Walt arrived, they quickly prepped him for surgery.  Walt had to have a Thrombectomy to remove blood clots in his cerebral arteries.  He had to have an angiogram which is a guided catheter through an incision in his groin and into his brain to remove plaque in the arteries followed by the placement of a stent to help widen the narrowed arteries. 
According to his doctor surgery was a success! On 1/11/21, Walt was moved out of the ICU and onto the Stroke unit. Every day that passed Walt became stronger, but his small advances were nothing compared to the challenges he would face. Walt is going to need a lot of help to rehabilitate himself to where he was before.  On 1/15/21, they received great news!  Walt was getting transferred to the Golisano Restorative Neurology & Rehabilitation Center at Unity where he would spend about 3 weeks getting 3-4 hours of top-notch PT/OT and speech therapy a day to help him recover faster. Walt was excited and ready to get to work, determined to get home quickly. Walt was doing great; he was starting to sound more like himself each and every day. Unfortunately, after 4 days Walt was given the bad news that his insurance would not pay for him to receive the level of care he needs at Unity and that he was getting kicked out. Hospital bills have already started to pile up, and insurance is only covering a small portion of the costs. 
Over the next few days Megan had to spend many hours at the Rehabilitation center so the nurses could teach her how to help Walt with everyday activities. Due to the Stroke Walt was diagnosed with left hemiparesis, hemisensory deficit and vision disruption causing Walt to experience weakness in his left side. He has to work on relearning things like, standing up, balancing himself, walking and getting dressed among many other daily activities that he will struggle to do safely on his own. He has an RN that comes to his house to check his vitals, medications and strength once a week. He has a Physical Therapist and a Speech Therapist coming to the house to help increase his strength, help regain his memory and to prevent further memory loss. Walt went from having amazing doctors, nurses, speech, occupational and physical therapists 3-4 hours a day while at Unity down to 3 hours a week at home.  To make matters worse, Walt just learned that his Insurance will only cover 5% plus deductibles, for each home visit.  With Walt not being able to work they can only afford one day of therapy a week.  One day a week is not nearly enough to provide Walt with the necessary therapy he will require. 
Walt has worked construction for 22 years and loves it. Now he has no idea when or if he will ever be able to work again. Walt is an amazing person who would do anything for anyone. He is a man of his community and very proud of it. He spent 16 years of his life coaching youth football as well as being an assistant Varsity Football Coach. Walt has also spent time being the Assistant coach for girls Varsity Basketball. The day before this all happened, he had just found out that he had finally landed the Head Coaching position for JV Girls Basketball.  Walt was so excited! Walt never says no, he is always doing and caring for others above himself. Need a ride, call Walt. Need someone to teach your teen how to drive because you’re too scared, call Walt. Want to run the track or run through some drills, call Walt. No matter the reason for the call, Walt is always willing to help.  Now it is our turn to answer Walt’s call and help him. Walt and his family need us now more than ever.  Any donation big or small would mean the world to him.