A spinal cord injury will not break Chris!

On Friday Nov 5th, my brother Chris Callahan was rushed to the hospital in respiratory distress and in severe pain then unconscious. His condition turned critical and tests showed a severely inflamed, swollen and compressed spinal cord at the cervical (neck) resulting in spinal myelopathy. Emergency surgery was needed to save his life and stop any further damage. While recovering from major spinal surgery, a blood clot formed at the surgical site, requiring a second emergency surgery which further worsened his condition and delayed his progress.

He had an extended stay in the ICU and just recently they were able to move him to Edwin Shaw for rehab. He has lost significant neurological and motor functioning from the neck down. We are told that much of the damage is expected to be permanent.

Visitation has been limited due to Covid restrictions allowing only one designated visitor. My sister-in-law is a nurse and has been at his side staying every night to help with his care, leaving for short amounts of time and traveling the distance back and forth just over ½ hour each way. Chris and his family are taking everything one day at a time, and trying to stay positive throughout this whole tragedy. Both Chris and his wife Bobbie have devoted their careers in the healthcare field caring for others, Chris as a surgical technician and Bobbie as a nurse, something they loved and I believe they were called to do. Bobbie has been unable to work while caring for him. This has hit Chris hard, especially worrying about the future for himself and his family.

Unfortunately, Chris has a very long road ahead of him. We are hopeful that through very extensive physical and occupational therapy, he will regain some feeling and movement in his hands and some more movement in his arms and legs. He will need assistive equipment to promote the most independence and allow for day-to-day functioning. Chris will need many things that they cannot even think of at this time. Most importantly, we will need to try to make his home wheelchair accessible so that he can come home when it is time.

Many relatives, close friends, neighbors, co-workers, friends of his family, school classmates and people he grew up with have reached out with prayers and asked what they can do. People who know Chris know that he would always do anything for anybody, sometimes to a fault. We grew up without much extra but he would share his lunch money or loan people money knowing he would never see it back. I remember getting mad at him when I was little for allowing some people to take advantage of him. But that was my brother, kind, loving, giving and always trying to make others smile. He and his wife are proud people who have always worked hard to provide for their families, never wanting to ask for assistance.

This fund is being created by myself and the other siblings who know what they are going through, yet feel helpless for the most part. We know their struggles and we see their perseverance and dedication to forge ahead through many challenges and uncertainties that lie in front of them. This is our way of saying that we will do what we can to help lighten the load and ease the path for that unknown future.

Any financial donations would be used to get his home accessible, gas for traveling back and forth, medical and adaptive equipment, and to help with medical bills to take the pressure off of him and his wife so that they can focus on getting better right now.

We are trying to help them in any way to get through this devastating time. Any and all prayers, positive thoughts, and assistance would be greatly appreciated! Any cards of encouragement can be sent to the following address and we will make sure that he gets them:

Chris Callahan

c/o Pat Callahan

2410 Burnham Rd.

Akron, Ohio 44333

Thank you for your support!