Stoney Bird's Medical Expense and Caregiving Fund

My name is Mouse Bird and I am organizing this fundraiser for my father, Stoney Bird.

On the evening of 11/21/22, I got a call from my brother who told me that the paramedics were on the way because he had come home to find Stoney in the dark at the bottom of the stairs, his face smashed up against the wall, unable to move, confused, with blood pooling at his head. The paramedics took Stoney to the emergency room at St. Joe's in Bellingham and he was then flown to Harborview in Seattle. We learned that he had fallen down the stairs, broken his neck, and been paralyzed with an incomplete spinal cord injury. At Harborview, he had surgery to fuse cervical vertebrae 2 through 6. The injury and surgery left him nearly completely immobilized, without the ability to swallow, breathe well, and move anything aside from his left leg. He lost forty pounds during his stay at Harborview.

He was at Harborview for seven weeks of intensive care and acute rehab. Midway through January he was moved to a skilled nursing facility in West Seattle. He will remain there for an indeterminate amount of time, most likely another four or more weeks. Since the traumatic incident, we have been living through the recovery process day by day, unable to determine short-term or long-term timelines or outcomes. He has been able to recover motor skills in both legs and his left arm, with nearly no improvement in the right arm. His breathing has improved and he has reclaimed the ability to swallow, meaning that he can drink water and eat food! With his left hand, he can manage his digital devices, feed himself (with assistance), and brush his teeth. Most of the day he is either laying down or resting in his wheelchair, with visits from physical and occupational therapists. With assistance he can get out of bed, stand, walk, and climb stairs. He is gaining strength and dexterity and will continue to make improvements in the weeks and months to come. It is unclear how long he will be living in a wheelchair.

When he leaves the nursing facility, he will be returning to his three-story duplex in the York Neighborhood in Bellingham. We are being stretched to our capacities as we are determining how to restructure his home to accommodate his disabilities, find the social and financial resources to support this major life transition, and find a person to live with him as a caregiver. We have found a lot of support from social workers in the hospital and at the nursing facility, and through spinal cord injury groups in Whatcom county. Stoney has Medicare with no supplemental insurance. Most of his stay at Harborview was covered, but there's a lot yet to pay. Medicare covered the first 21 days at the nursing facility but he is now being billed $200 per day. When he makes the transition back home, he will still need 24-hour care for at least a month, and continuing care to a lesser extent for the foreseeable future. We are trying to be creative in finding a way to get him the care that he needs with limited financial resources and keep his affordable living situation which is utterly impossible to find in Bellingham these days.

Stoney has devoted the last twenty years of his 78-year-old life (he turned 78 four days after he broke his neck) to being in service to planet earth, social activism, and dismantling the corporatocracy. He has volunteered thousands and thousands of hours in community organizing, public transportation, and political campaigns for nature and human rights, and peace demonstrations. His current attention is focused on establishing public banking and ranked-choice voting. He gave away his car in 2002 and has ridden his bicycle, walked, and used public transportation since. He lives a modest and frugal lifestyle, rarely buying anything at all let alone new things. He is a kind and generous man who has been blessed with an incredibly strong will to survive and thrive.

All funds raised will be used to pay for medical bills, restructure his home, and pay for caregiving and medical equipment that he will need. We will be putting a call out soon to look for a live-in caregiver.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you, thank you, thank you.