Begging for help

Hello everyone! I thought I would send you an update about David (my dad) and ask each of you for a personal favor.

As you may know Dad's had heart issues for many years. Combined with lymphoma, diabetes, pulmonary embolisms and other issues, he's been in and out of the hospital a lot and required a lot of care. As a result, he's on permanent disability and waiting to be eligible for MediCare/MedicAid. On June 10th of this year he had surgery to place an artificial pump in him (called an LVAD). The pump has made a huge difference in how he looks and feels, which is exactly the intention. The idea was to "bridge" him until he'd been cancer free for 5 years and then get him on the heart transplant list.

However, during the procedure or shortly after, Dave suffered a left temporal sub-acute stroke. From there we got good and bad news. The good news is that there was no paralysis or apparent physical effects. Well, and that he lived is also good news. The bad news is that it is significantly complicating his recovery. Complicating it to the point that the doctors are saying he needs 24/7 care for the foreseeable future. He has problems reading and writing, finishing his thoughts and remembering the words and names of very common things, including his family. Being diabetic, for example, means that he needs someone there to monitor his blood sugar, etc. Just one of many, many examples. This biggest bad news comes in that nursing homes won't take him because of the LVAD. They have concerns about the liability, training, etc, which means that he will be at home for now to do his rehab and recovery.

My mom is taking at least two weeks off work to stay home with him and assess is his needs so we can figure out where to go from here. She doesn't have any PTO left as she's used it all on Dad's illnesses up until now. As I mentioned, Dad is on disability, which pays some of the bills. But, Mom has the medical benefits and is now the primary income for them. She needs to either get back to work as soon as possible, or her income needs to be subsidized.

To help them out, we are doing a fundraiser to try to cover her paycheck as long as possible. If you could help with this, our family would be greatly in your debt. Any other forms of assistance is also helpful such as meals, cleaning, etc. None of this is easy to ask for, but sorely needed.

The link to the fundraiser is http://goo.gl/UgyN4, please feel free to share it with others. If you would rather not donate online but would rather send a check, please let me know and we can make arrangements for that. Here is a direct donation option as well:

Thank you everyone!

Brad and family