Donn Stamp's Stroke Recovery

On July 5th, 2016 Donn Stamp went into surgery to have a carotid endarterectomy (clean out his left carotid artery).  Sometime during surgery, something went terribly wrong and there was  decreased blood flow to his brain; resulting in a massive stroke.  At age 66, Donn literally walked into the operating room but exited on a stretcher; the victim of a major stroke.  He immediately began to fight for his life as he was in the ICU for weeks.  He could no longer talk, follow instruction, communicate at all and had little to no control of any part of his body.  After several weeks, his health stabilized and he was released from the ICU, but remained hospitalized to begin his rehabilitation.

In August Donn was transfered to an inpatient rehabilitation center where he began the arduous task of recovery.  For the next 3.5 months, Donn would receive intensive  physical, occupational and speech  therapies in an effort to regain some of the skills that were taken from him.  On  October 29th,  Donn returned home for the first time in 4 months.  Through continued therapy, Donn has regained about 90% control of the left side of his body, but lacks significantly on his right side.  He has about 50% use of his right leg; approximately 5% use of his right arm and minimal speech/communication ability. 

It has been recommended by Donn's recovery team that he participate in an extremely intense 5 week aphasia/apraxia program at the University of Michigan, in an effort to regain much of his communication and speech.  This program has a 96% success rate of helping those who go through the program to regain significant communication ability.  Our prayer is that through this program Donn would regain the ability to speak in conversation with wife, children, grandchildren, extended family and friends.  Radical programs like this are rare and very expensive.  This program will cost Donn $25,000 .  Time is vital in stroke recovery.  The sooner Donn can begin this program the better his communication will be.  He needs to begin this program in either May 17' or June 17'.

This tragedy robbed him of his love for the outdoors, golf, conversations as well as basic skills like walking and talking.  For the past 8 months, Donn has been trapped inside his mind; it's time to set him free.  Please help Donn attend this program.  He desperately wants to communicate with his loved ones again and regain the ability to have conversation.  He needs your help. We need your help.  To be clear, Audrey Stamp will directly withdraw 100% of the funds you give directly into their account.  I (her son Zach) is simply setting this up for them.

To learn more about the UMAP program visit: http://mari.umich.edu/ucll/umap/