Edo McGrady, Cheryl's brother, needs help!

Hello everyone,

I'm going to try to make this as short and sweet as possible. Cheryl has a brother, Ed McGrady, affectionately known as Edo.

It's Christmas of 2021 and we get a call. Edo had driven himself to the hospital, vomiting blood, in and out of consciousness, and complaining of severe chest pains. He spent a week in the hospital. If you know Cheryl and what she's been going through, you know the next part of this story. He was diagnosed with genetic heart disease/failure. However, his body was in no condition to have the quadruple bypass surgery that he needed. He was advised to take a 6-month leave from work, he went home with a vest that had a dial-out monitor and that would shock his heart if he had a heart attack. A couple of months into that, he was forced to resign from his job.

Edo did as the doctors said but he didn't qualify (meaning his body wasn't strong enough to handle the surgery) for the surgery for over a year. Finally, in May of 2022, Edo had his surgery. Cheryl and I went to Asheville, NC., to be with him before and after the surgery. The morning of, the doctor pulled Cheryl aside and told her that her brother had less than a 20% chance of surviving the surgery. Despite having the odds against him, Edo pulled through. He had to recover for several months per the doctor's orders. When it was all said and done, Edo was out of work for about a year and a half. He had to utilize all his savings, he cashed in any 401k money he had, and he's now forced to contemplate bankruptcy. Edo also has a son Aiden who is autistic. Edo is trying to make ends meet. Cheryl and I have helped him out but it's way beyond "giving him a couple of bucks" to make ends meet. It's so severe, Edo eats one meal a day to make sure he can pay rent, pay his bills, and provide for Aiden.

Why didn't he apply for disability you may ask? He did. He went through the process and was denied. We hired an attorney to appeal and his appeal was...denied. I contacted his local congressman's office and they said they could help us with an appeal. The appeal we organized with his office was...denied.

So this is where we're at. We need family and friends to help because the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has let us down. A man sent home to die, forced to quit his job to barely qualify for life-saving surgery, apparently doesn't qualify for temporary disability in the State of North Carolina. Whatever you can spare...please consider helping out.