Help us bring Kevin Crowe home & finish his road to recovery

Hello everyone my name is Lindsey and I am setting up this fundraiser for my dad Kevin Crowe. Over the past year our family has dealt with a great deal of medical turmoil. The story begins in 2018 when our dad started having issues walking. Initially he had some trauma from a past neck injury that had greatly compressed his spinal cord. Two surgeries and some therapy got him back to functioning without difficulty. Over the years he has done very well still gardening, woodworking, and taking care of the lawn. In early 2023 he started having some more difficulties walking along with other neurological deficits, which prompted his doctor to move up his maintenance MRI. His initial physician had reported that there were no changes in his images. We did not feel this was an adequate report and sought a second opinion. We sought out Wash U neurosurgeons to look over his scans and give us a better understanding.

After many scans and tests our dad was diagnosed with an intramedullary grade 2 ependymoma. This is a very rare tumor that not a lot of people will encounter in their lifetime and it’s even more rare to be inside of the spinal cord. On September 11th, 2023 our dad had his first operation to start the process of resecting the tumor. The operation was a success and it was 100% removed. Unfortunately the results of that removal has been catastrophic towards his neurological function. Our dad ended up in the ICU for 8 weeks, an LTACH for 12 weeks, a short stay at Hermann Hospital, another ICU stay for 4 weeks and yet another LTACH, and now over that last two weeks an acute rehab center. As a result of the surgery our dad is unable to walk, unable to use his right arm, had a tracheostomy that required long term ventilation, a Foley catheter due to urinary

problems, a g tube for nutritional purposes, and many other challenges. Our dad also obtained a bedsore not even two weeks in the ICU upon initial admission and that has delayed his care greatly. Our dad has made some pretty significant improvements over the last 2-3 months and can now feed himself, use his phones independently, and somewhat shift himself in bed if needed.

It has been a very tough year on my dad and our family. His whole life has been greatly impacted and insurance and rehab facilities are to the point of discharging him from care. He has ONLY received intense therapy for two weeks and needs many many more years of therapy, along with a motorized wheelchair, wheelchair accessible vehicle, around the clock care for wheelchair transfers, etc and lots of home modifications in order to be able to bring my dad home. We had been waiting to see what other options and resources we could access and unfortunately the options are extremely limited for people with spinal cord injuries.

So we are asking our community for help with being able to financially support bringing him home so he can live his new norm.

If you are in a position to help financially our family would greatly appreciate your contribution.