Stroke Recovery Fund-Get Tassi Back to Pickleball

On Monday, April 24th Tassi had a stroke and collapsed at work. He was rushed to the emergency room and was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease. This is an extremely rare condition in which his right carotid artery is blocked at the base of his brain preventing his brain from getting enough blood. Due to multiple strokes, the entire left half of his body is paralyzed. He cannot eat, speak, or walk and currently has pneumonia due to the aspiration of the contents of his feeding tube. Tassi needs brain surgery or he will die. Currently, he is on life support in the Neuro-ICU and is very high risk to operate on. His surgeon says there is a 50/50 chance that he will not survive this operation and if he does, he will need physical and speech therapy for quite a while afterward.

First, your prayers for comfort and healing are very important and much appreciated. Second, any financial assistance you can give will go far. Tassi will be unable to work for a substantial amount of time post-surgery. Madeline is spending all hours of the day by his side and caring for their son, Taumafai. With mounting medical bills, approaching rehab and daily living expenses, our need for your help is considerable. We ask that you prayerfully consider how you can make an impact on our family as well as Tassi’s well-being and recovery.

UPDATE 4/29/2023

Tassi was able to have brain surgery. Unfortunately, the doctors believe about 20% of the right half of his brain has been damaged beyond repair. If he survives this week and they determine the graft of his artery was successful, he will have to do extensive physical, occupational, and speech therapy. Tassi's life will be permanently altered. In addition to this, he now has pneumonia and sepsis. He has been unable to have a successful feeding through his feeding tube for over 3 days and was in a non-medically induced coma for a few hours today. Tassi's left ventricle of his heart is weak causing his entire body to have extreme swelling. The doctors say Tassi is currently the sickest patient in their entire ICU. Please continue to pray for and support our family in any way you can. We are so grateful for every one of you.

Update 5/7/2023

Tassi has now had 3 brain surgeries and has been in the ICU for about 2 weeks. He is completely paralyzed on the left half of his body and will have a long road ahead of him for recovery. We are hoping he will be in the ICU for another week or two and will then begin inpatient rehabilitation for a few months where he will have to learn how to walk and feed himself again. During his time here he has experienced a major stroke, heart failure, a non-medical induced coma, and pneumonia among other health issues. We are so grateful for your prayers and donations during this difficult time and ask for you to continue to pray for Tassi's recovery.

Update 5/31/2023

Tassi has officially been in the hospital for over 6 weeks now. He has been moved to acute neuro in-patient rehab and will live here for the duration of his stay in the hospital. He will be having brain surgery #4 in the coming weeks where they will put his skull back on. Tassi is relearning how to walk and function outside of a hospital setting. He has a minimum of 3-5 hours of physical therapy each day and is working very hard to gain his mobility and cognitive function back. We are so grateful for the outpour of support our family has received during this time and continue to pray for Tassi's recovery.