Sips for Stanton

RJ's Story...

For more than a year, our good buddy RJ Stanton has been in the fight of his life, first going up against a malignant brain tumor, who's ass he kicked in true Lurch fashion. Not long after putting down that gauntlet, in July of this year, RJ was hit with complications from chemo / radiation treatments including ruptured arteries, blood clots, blood infections, and leg infections that will take months to heal.  He underwent 5+ emergency surgeries and needed more than 50 units of blood.  Now for us mere humans, that’s a lot to handle, but if you know RJ well, you know he's got the strength of a yeti, and there was a never a doubt that he’d beat the snot out of these ailments. We’re glad to report good news on that front, and while RJ’s not totally out of the woods yet, he’s healthy enough to subject himself to the pain of the Browns’ abysmal play calling…hit the morphine button dude. 

Needless to say, the big fella has done the hard work to pull through all of this and after 7 weeks in intensive care he has finally been discharged to an acute rehab facility. As a result of these ongoing battles, RJ was put on medical leave which means no paycheck. Despite his best efforts, RJ's employer refused to let him wheel his hospital bed onto job sites...some nonsense about "OSHA violations." Well as you can imagine, 9 months’ worth of chemo, radiation, countless surgeries, blood transfusions, and all that good hospital food isn’t cheap (we should all be glad UH didn’t let him run up a bar tab…), and it’s even harder to stomach (no pun intended) when on medical leave.  Even though RJ has good insurance there are expenses beyond the scope of his plan...did I mention he got to take a ride in a LifeFlight copter? He and Leah have already gone to hell and back throughout this whole ordeal and they should be focused solely on getting RJ healthy enough to rejoin the life he left behind, and not waste a second thinking about finances. 

While we can’t fight the fight along with RJ and Leah, be it in a hospital room or rehab facility, we can all do a little to help put any financial concerns to rest. That in mind, we’ve set up this GoFundMe where RJ and Leah's family and friends can contribute to show their support for the Stantons. No amount is too small, and we'd appreciate you sharing this link with anyone you think might like to support. For those local to Cleveland, we'll also be hosting a "Sips for Stanton" party on Thursday, October 17th at 7:00pm at Bay Arts in Bay Village, where we'll raise a little money and raise a couple glasses to health and happiness for RJ, Leah, and Murph too…Lord knows the Rog Dawg would do the same for any of us...