Tom Barra's Stroke Recovery

Hi everyone, this is Nick Barra. On November 8th, 2022, my father Tom Barra suffered a severe stroke that rendered him unable to speak, and unable to move his right arm or leg. It has been a difficult road so far, and will certainly continue to be for some time. I'm turning to our community to ask for financial assistance in whatever amount you can spare, to help my father pay for the costly services that he's needed as a result of his stroke.

For some background on what Tom's been through the past few months: After his stroke, he spent 7 days at Saint Mary's Hospital, 25 days at Gaylord Specialty Healthcare for acute rehabilitation, and 17 days at Cheshire House for post-acute rehabilitation. On December 27th, he returned to his home and continued receiving in-home rehabilitation.

We are extremely fortunate for the high level of care he has been receiving. Thanks to the help of many hours of Physical, Occupation, and Speech Therapies, he has recovered a great deal of mobility and strength in his limbs, regained much of his ability to speak, and is on the path to continue recovering even further.

However, these facilities have not been cheap. His insurance has covered a good deal of these bills, but ultimately were somewhat unhelpful in this process, only willing to do the bare minimum that was required of them. Tom has been left with some pretty large expenses as a result of the hospital/nursing facilities, ambulances, and the special equipment/modifications that we've had to make to his house to make it easier for him to get around and do the things he needs to do at home.

One of the unfortunate outcomes of Tom's stroke is that we've had to make the difficult decision to close his business Tom's Barber-Salon, which he has owned since 1989. He worked full-time prior to his stroke, and the lack of income since then has been unfortunate, and difficult to navigate.

It has been a difficult decision to make this GoFundMe - It's not easy to ask for help from friends and family, especially during such a difficult time, but I know ultimately it will help to reduce the tremendous amount of stress and anxiety that my father has had to go through as a result of this whole situation.

Throughout this very difficult time, the outpouring of extreme kindness from Tom's friends, family, and customers has been indispensable to his recovery - it has been his source of motivation and determination to make a full recovery, and we are so grateful for the help you are all providing.