Josh the day before he graduated high school in May 2009.
Today is my nephew Josh’s 18th Birthday, and we’re wishing it was under better circumstances. Because of his car accident, Josh is turning 18 today in a Neurological Rehabilitation Facility in Austin, Texas.
There is good news, and plenty of it. Several weeks ago in the hospital doctors hinted that Josh might have sustained an irreparable brain injury that they thought would keep him in a vegetative state for the rest of his life. However, once his vitals were stabilized he was moved to a rehabilitation facility in the hopes that rehab could spark a recovery.
His first day in rehab was mostly uneventful, until his mother stuck his iPod in his ears and boom – there was a spark. That was almost two weeks ago, and major things have happened. Josh is still unable to speak, or walk, but he is gaining some movement in both sides of his body, arms and legs. On good days he can understand simple questions, and as the video below shows – on his first day of being able to eat soft foods clearly displayed his love of ice cream.
It looks like Josh will be involved in heavy rehabilitation for at least 6-8 months, and will then most likely need to be moved into an assisted living style home for another several months, or years, or forever – we just don’t know yet. Chances of having Josh be completely self managed after his recovery are slim, but our fingers are crossed.
The neurologist discussed the recent CAT scan and said there is a great deal of scar tissue which will cause permanent impairments. He is not certain what the end results will be for Josh.
But with all good news comes bad news. Our family has started receiving the medical bills associated with his recovery, and they are staggering. Just a month of recovery has already run up the tab to almost $300,000. It is a humbling moment to see a single one-page bill come in for $255,000 for a 16-day hospital stay, or a $10,000 bill for a helicopter airlift.
We’ve worked through the insurance coverage, and it appears that the plan my sister had as a teacher in Hawaii only covers 80% of the total costs associated with all of Josh’s expenses, with NO OUT OF POCKET MAXIMUM. Before the accident, she had been applying for a better health plan, but the paperwork hadn’t yet been processed, meaning we are out luck. With any hope we can get Medicaid/Medicare coverage and some disability for Josh soon.
What does this mean to us? Well, my sister and our family is going to have to pay at least $60,000 of the bills already, and it’s only been a month. It’s very likely that this incident will bankrupt my sister completely, and leave the rest of family pretty strained financially.
The other great news is that we built a little chip-in widget for family and friends to make donations, and so far we’ve raised almost $2,000 from some incredibly caring and generous people. Not just people, but absolute angels in the true sense of the word.
I’d like to ask you to pass this blog post and donation widget along to any friends you might know that can possibly help out my sister through donations or getting the word out through Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. This is a case where virtual messages can make a real difference in the lives of real people.
I want to thank you all again so much for all the love and support you’ve shown our family during these times of trouble. I can’t wait to update you all again soon with the progress Josh is making.
Also, for those of you interested in daily updates, you can visit here to see his progress.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/joshuasentelle
