Help Clark Walk Again And Recover From Stroke

It was a June Wednesday afternoon and I missed multiple calls from my 80 year old mother. When I put down my work and picked up my phone the text read, "CALL ME ASAP. CLARK IS IN THE HOSPITAL." My loving 40-year-old brother Clark had suffered a major stroke. His girlfriend Brittany was thankfully working from home and heard him hit the floor. She called the ambulance right away and he was rushed to the hospital. He was unconscious in the NICU by the time I got anyone on the phone. A Neuro Integrated Care Unit is an intensive care unit devoted to the care of patients with immediately life-threatening neurological problems and that's what Clark was facing. While I was on the phone with my mother, who was breaking down, the Neurosurgeon told her that Clark had an extreme brain bleed in the right side of his brain and it was NOT something they could help with surgery without doing extreme damage to his brain. Our prayers at that moment were for his survival and the brain bleed to stop. I can't express to you the difficulty this time was for everyone, especially our parents. They stayed by him every minute we were allowed. Immediate family and close friends visited as they could over the couple weeks that followed as we stared at machines working to keep his blood pressure down. Machines, seizure watches, doctors, nurses, staff, ports, IV's, the works, all trying to stop the bleeding and allow the difficult, intense and lengthy healing process for his brain to begin.

I won't further detail the horror of the hallucinations, pains and realities that crept in over those weeks but the fight was just beginning. We are so blessed to be in the place where we are talking about my brother in the present tense. However, the stroke he suffered left him completely paralyzed on the entire left side of his body. He has no use or feeling of any of it. He is also suffering intense left neglect. He can't see, recognize or hold attention to anything on his left. As you can imagine the physical difficulties this puts on him and his caregivers is ENORMOUS and he needs 24-hour care. This is where we need all the help we can get.

While in the NICU we were told that the hospital we were in wasn't covered by his insurance. This was just the start. He needed to be transferred from one hospital to another down the highway as soon as possible due to insurance. The problem; there wasn't a bed. Extra days went by in the NICU while we waited for the transfer. After multiple transfers (and bills) he was put into a rehabilitation center. After a short period of a week or two, we were told by a case worker that he was to be discharged because insurance was up. In a disastrous display of miscommunications, confusing meeting times and "oh sorrys," we found ourselves in the family training on how to help physically transfer Clark from bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to seat, and so on followed by a family meeting to gather a plan for Clark's discharge. We were told he was approved for 5 days a week PT and some OT at a facility. We figured out how to pull this off and a plan was set. Fast forward a week to the day before he was to be discharged into our care and the case worker informs us that the facility in the plan we had discussed and planned around did not accept his insurance and it would be out of pocket. He was then discharged. There wasn't even a home safety evaluation to make sure the house was safe! (My elderly father had to build ramps AFTER he got home!)

Clark needs INTENSE Physical Therapy for months at least if he's to stand a chance at recovering any use of his left side. To get what he needs in that facility alone it will cost us about $8500 a month out of pocket just for the PT.

We were blindsided. We didn't know what to do. We didn't even know who to talk to or ask questions to. We took him home and have struggled to get him more than 3 one hour sessions at other facilities that are covered by his insurance. We've talked to dozens of professionals in the medical community and all insist that HE NEEDS INTENSIVE PHYSICAL THERAPY IMMEDIATELY and that you have to just spend the money to get it wherever you can or he'll miss any window of opportunity to recover to whatever point that may be possible. And here we are. Clark is such a wonderful guy and is by most accounts clinging to positivity during all of this. The toll it's taken on our parents, his girlfriend and all of our family is impossible to explain. This is just the tip of the iceberg with this story so far.

Thank you so much for reading his story. We are praying and hoping every day this is just a chapter in his life and does not define his future. We need any help we can get with all the bills that are starting to come in from the months of hospital stays, the cost of the wheelchair that had to be customized for him, the cost of all the extremely important therapy he needs and possibly an inpatient facility for the time being so Clark is getting the true care he needs. We have tried to do it these past weeks and simply can't do it this way. Even with relatives driving hours to spend the night to try and help. I'm grateful to you for reading this and sending any prayers, vibes, and energies you can. Whatever you can give in any way is a blessing to us now. Praise God my brother is alive.