Help David Earley Recover, Traumatic Brain Injury
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This campaign is for David Earley and his wife Karen and their two children Liam and Lauren. One day last year, their lives were tragically changed. Here is their story as told by Karen. Please share this with anyone who may be interested in helping.
On 08/26/2018, David left for a typical afternoon bike ride that would change our family’s life forever. David was found unresponsive and seeming to have a seizure or cardiac arrest on the American Tobacco Trail by another rider. He was taken to Duke Hospital where he was diagnosed with a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke. He suffered multiple traumatic brain hemorrhages and a TBI with diffuse axonal injury (DAI). He also suffered a right temporal ischemic stroke.
David remained at Duke in ICU and step down neuro care from 8/26/2018-9/21/2018. While at Duke I was told by the medical team that we, as a family, had a long road ahead. I truly did not understand the magnitude of that statement. Brain injury, in my opinion and experience, is the least supported injury after critical care.
David was discharged to The Brian Center, a skilled nursing facility in Durham, on 09/21/2018. The Brian Center was not equipped to care for David”s cognitive deficits once his brain began to slowly wake up from the trauma that had occurred. He was discharged home on 09/28/2018 after 8 days at the center. I was not given any other discharge options. This began a two-week nightmare for our family in our home.
Once home, David suffered from extreme bouts of paranoia, anger, agitation and aggression. He refused medications and food. He began making phone calls to the FBI and police, stating that we were stealing his belongings and giving him fake medications. We know now that this was part of the brain healing. It is called Rancho 4 on the Rancho scale. We called friends to help us calm him and eventually had to call the police several times for help. We could not reason with David. It was very traumatizing and scary.
On 10/14/2018 our son, Liam, and I had to have David involuntarily committed back to Duke Hospital. We had no choice. Over two weeks, doctors worked to stabilize David on medically necessary medications to keep him from having a seizure and to calm his mind. He was rapidly losing weight from not eating so they worked to stabilize his body with fluids. David continued to deny that he actually had an accident and needed any help.
During this time, I learned about two facilities in Raleigh that specialize in brain injury neurobehavioral care. We started reaching out to these facilities to help David and our family. We eventually connected with one of David’s high school friends who works at NeuroRestorative. Taking a leap of faith, I moved David there at the beginning of April. She is David’s occupational therapist and I am thankful to have the connection and peace of mind that he is in good hands.
In moving him, I have to begin a new battle with the insurance company to cover some of the care. The issue with a brain injury rehabilitation facility is that they are not covered by insurance. They deal mostly with workers comp and lawsuits from on the job injuries. They don’t cover a dad that went out on a bike ride and collapsed. The care for these facilities at self-pay is $21K-$28K a month. It is unaffordable for anyone.
David must be in a rehabilitation facility that specializes in his injuries. He suffers from Anosogosia which is a deficit of self-awareness. He does not believe that he suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. He believes he can drive and do all the things he did before the accident occurred. He does not believe his medications are necessary. He is now in a medically stable environment where therapists work with him to accept the deficits, calm his racing thoughts and paranoia, and work with him on rebuilding the neural pathways through cognitive work. He is relearning how to integrate back into social settings and to relearn skills he has lost.
David will need intense therapies and we do not know how long that will be. With a brain injury, every person is different and healing does not have a timeline. In addition to NeuroRestorative, we have David in the Wake Med Day Treatment program. Self-pay for therapies at Wake Med are $550 per session. He is receiving speech and OT twice a week. Insurance has denied continued therapies through the Wake Med Day Treatment program stating that they are not medically necessary unless due to stroke or injury. He did suffer a stroke and they are medically necessary. I am appealing that denial as well. He needs the therapies now and was progressing significantly with his therapists. We do not have time to wait on a paper decision. The brain heals the most in the first 12-18 months. We are now 10 months post injury.
Our family needs help in any way you can to support David. The out of pocket cost is unbelievable. David was the sole provider for our family. I do not have the ability to look for work at this time to support my family. My day is spent behind the scenes of David’s medical care, financial appointments, legal appointments, clinical appointments, maintaining my house alone and trying to be the best mother I can.
My kids lost the father they knew on August 26, 2018, the day before the school year started. Our lives have been turned upside down. Your help will support the rehabilitation facility and intense therapies needed to care for David in a stable and safe environment. It will also support alternative therapies that are recommended by brain injury survivors and their families.
I plan to pay forward the knowledge I have gained to other families that may end up experiencing a brain injury. I also want to work to change the lack of care for such a catastrophic injury. Thank you for taking the time to read about our story over the last 10 months. We appreciate any support you can provide to help us heal David. With the proper therapies he has a chance to improve and build on what he has lost.
The Earley Family - David, Karen, Liam and Lauren
Before the Accident
After the Accident
Working to Recover
On 08/26/2018, David left for a typical afternoon bike ride that would change our family’s life forever. David was found unresponsive and seeming to have a seizure or cardiac arrest on the American Tobacco Trail by another rider. He was taken to Duke Hospital where he was diagnosed with a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke. He suffered multiple traumatic brain hemorrhages and a TBI with diffuse axonal injury (DAI). He also suffered a right temporal ischemic stroke.
David remained at Duke in ICU and step down neuro care from 8/26/2018-9/21/2018. While at Duke I was told by the medical team that we, as a family, had a long road ahead. I truly did not understand the magnitude of that statement. Brain injury, in my opinion and experience, is the least supported injury after critical care.
David was discharged to The Brian Center, a skilled nursing facility in Durham, on 09/21/2018. The Brian Center was not equipped to care for David”s cognitive deficits once his brain began to slowly wake up from the trauma that had occurred. He was discharged home on 09/28/2018 after 8 days at the center. I was not given any other discharge options. This began a two-week nightmare for our family in our home.
Once home, David suffered from extreme bouts of paranoia, anger, agitation and aggression. He refused medications and food. He began making phone calls to the FBI and police, stating that we were stealing his belongings and giving him fake medications. We know now that this was part of the brain healing. It is called Rancho 4 on the Rancho scale. We called friends to help us calm him and eventually had to call the police several times for help. We could not reason with David. It was very traumatizing and scary.
On 10/14/2018 our son, Liam, and I had to have David involuntarily committed back to Duke Hospital. We had no choice. Over two weeks, doctors worked to stabilize David on medically necessary medications to keep him from having a seizure and to calm his mind. He was rapidly losing weight from not eating so they worked to stabilize his body with fluids. David continued to deny that he actually had an accident and needed any help.
During this time, I learned about two facilities in Raleigh that specialize in brain injury neurobehavioral care. We started reaching out to these facilities to help David and our family. We eventually connected with one of David’s high school friends who works at NeuroRestorative. Taking a leap of faith, I moved David there at the beginning of April. She is David’s occupational therapist and I am thankful to have the connection and peace of mind that he is in good hands.
In moving him, I have to begin a new battle with the insurance company to cover some of the care. The issue with a brain injury rehabilitation facility is that they are not covered by insurance. They deal mostly with workers comp and lawsuits from on the job injuries. They don’t cover a dad that went out on a bike ride and collapsed. The care for these facilities at self-pay is $21K-$28K a month. It is unaffordable for anyone.
David must be in a rehabilitation facility that specializes in his injuries. He suffers from Anosogosia which is a deficit of self-awareness. He does not believe that he suffered a severe traumatic brain injury. He believes he can drive and do all the things he did before the accident occurred. He does not believe his medications are necessary. He is now in a medically stable environment where therapists work with him to accept the deficits, calm his racing thoughts and paranoia, and work with him on rebuilding the neural pathways through cognitive work. He is relearning how to integrate back into social settings and to relearn skills he has lost.
David will need intense therapies and we do not know how long that will be. With a brain injury, every person is different and healing does not have a timeline. In addition to NeuroRestorative, we have David in the Wake Med Day Treatment program. Self-pay for therapies at Wake Med are $550 per session. He is receiving speech and OT twice a week. Insurance has denied continued therapies through the Wake Med Day Treatment program stating that they are not medically necessary unless due to stroke or injury. He did suffer a stroke and they are medically necessary. I am appealing that denial as well. He needs the therapies now and was progressing significantly with his therapists. We do not have time to wait on a paper decision. The brain heals the most in the first 12-18 months. We are now 10 months post injury.
Our family needs help in any way you can to support David. The out of pocket cost is unbelievable. David was the sole provider for our family. I do not have the ability to look for work at this time to support my family. My day is spent behind the scenes of David’s medical care, financial appointments, legal appointments, clinical appointments, maintaining my house alone and trying to be the best mother I can.
My kids lost the father they knew on August 26, 2018, the day before the school year started. Our lives have been turned upside down. Your help will support the rehabilitation facility and intense therapies needed to care for David in a stable and safe environment. It will also support alternative therapies that are recommended by brain injury survivors and their families.
I plan to pay forward the knowledge I have gained to other families that may end up experiencing a brain injury. I also want to work to change the lack of care for such a catastrophic injury. Thank you for taking the time to read about our story over the last 10 months. We appreciate any support you can provide to help us heal David. With the proper therapies he has a chance to improve and build on what he has lost.
The Earley Family - David, Karen, Liam and Lauren
Before the Accident
After the Accident
Working to Recover
Organizer and beneficiary
Fairfield Neighbors
Organizer
Durham, NC
Karen Earley
Beneficiary
