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Memorial for Casey Westbrook

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Many of you may know Casey, but for those of you who don't: he's a loving father to two beautiful kids. Even after our divorce and my remarriage, we are one big happy family. He often comes to visit here, which is wonderful for the kids. As an artist he tends to move a lot, and we all work together to make visits work.

He's a brilliant man.  He is an iron caster, and his specialized knowledge in cupola construction and mold making is sought after around the world.  If you have never been to an iron pour, you haven't lived yet.  Wouldn't it be an incredible world if brilliance translated into happiness?  Casey has been a mercurial man from day one.  He has bouts of depression that tear him down to a shell of who he is, and he has struggled with that for as long as I have known him.  He tended to binge drink when those lows hit, an attempt to self-medicate I imagine.  He hid his problem.  He didn't hang out in bars.  He didn't sit around watching TV with a glass, can, or bottle of something.  He hid alone and drank as much as possible until he didn't feel anymore and could sleep.

The last year was especially difficult for Casey.  He began having health problems that made it difficult for him to work.  His work requires quite a bit of physicality, and he had started having numbness and weakness in his legs.  He had lost a considerable amount of weight and looked unwell.  He went to the doctor, but they misdiagnosed his problems.  He continued to decline and fall deeper into depression as his health continued to fail.  

Recently he was found in his room, confused and weak.  He was rushed to a hospital, in acute liver failure and obtunded.  He has suffered an acute encephalopathy in his brain due to malnutrition, and the lasting effects of this are unknown at this time.  He has made small improvements over the last week, but without adequate care, that improvement will be slow and incomplete.  

You see, he had no insurance.  He is one of the lucky Georgia residents who is suffering from the donuthole in Obamacare.  Each state chooses how to allocate the federal funds they receive, and the state of Georgia chose not to support people under the poverty line.  I want to point out how ridiculous that is for a moment.  The lower your income, the poorer your health.   

What he needs right now is treatment provided by a compassionate and caring team.  What he needs is time to heal so that he can become the man that he was, or at least some semblance of that.  He needs to be well enough to hug his children, recognize them, and love them.  
That's where you come in.  EVERYONE DESERVES DIGNIFIED AND COMPASSIONATE CARE.  Your donations will be used to help establish insurance (hurry before the Affordable Care Act is dismantled and he can't get insurance due to this now pre-existing condition) and to pay the medical bills he has and will incur over the unknown length of time he will need treatment.  

There are so many people who love him.  Help him get back to the man that they deserve.  








Donations 

  • Dawn Franklin
    • $50 
    • 5 yrs

Organizer and beneficiary

Dana Jones
Organizer
Irondale, GA
Jan Westbrook
Beneficiary

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