Rick Smart- Post Stroke Recovery

Rick Smart is a long time friend of our family and has been a truck driver his entire adult life. This was something he truly loved to do and allowed him to care for and support his family, until recently.

A month ago, Rick was working, driving his semi truck as usual, and parked his truck and called his wife to tell her that he would be home the next morning around 7 AM in time for breakfast. Around 8 AM, Rick's dispatcher called his wife, Christie, and notified her that according to the GPS, Rick's truck was still parked in the same location as the night before. At this point, the police were called to do a wellness check on Rick but when they arrived, no one answered the door. Since they did not want to break the window to get inside for various reasons, Rick's boss, his son-in-law, and his brother drove out there to unlock the door and get him out. Unfortunately, upon arrival, they found out that Rick had laid there for 4 more hours and sometime in the night had suffered an acute ischemic stroke. This led to extreme slurred speech and paralysis on his left side. He also suffered a major contusion and had dried blood on his left temple, multiple cuts and open wounds on his legs, knees, and thighs.

After being taken to the hospital, it has been identified that Rick had numerous blood clots in his brain. He is also seeing a wound doctor for the open wounds on his body and is working on physical therapy to hopefully walk again one day. Rick has been in the hospital for approximately 31 days at this point and will hopefully come home in a wheel chair on February 6th.

At this time, Rick's wife, Christie makes the 45 minute drive every day to be with her husband as he learns to manage and deal with the changes in his life. Rick would like to return home, but as of right now, he is unable to get the care and help he needs to be able to function at home. Rick and Christie could really use the financial support from anyone willing to aid in this change of lifestyle. If you are able to donate, his family would be truly grateful! Please consider helping Rick and his family as he learns to manage the many challenges in his future, along with the numerous medical bills and increasing every day costs and expenses.