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Dear Friends and Family,
As many of you know, On July 6th, 2015 Greg suffered a C4 complete spinal cord injury while body surfing with his son on vacation in Mexico. The wave he was surfing rolled and he hit his head and neck on the ocean floor. As Greg surfaced, he had no feeling in his arms or legs. His son, Xander, held his head out of the water even as he called for assistance. Xander definitely saved his dad’s life.
Greg was taken to the local hospital for emergency surgery and then once he was stabilized, he was flown to Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville where family and friends were able to surround him with love as he received top-notch medical care.
On July 20th, Greg was admitted to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, GA for intensive rehab therapy. Since coming home we have been through many medical emergent struggles. Greg suffered 5 life threatening Autonomic Dysreflexic episodes the last one resulting in a brain bleed.
Even with insurance Greg will have many uninsured injury-related expenses such as: co-pays and deductibles, additional rehab that may include the purchase of equipment for in-home use for physical therapy.
Unfortunately, we have come up against many obstacles in obtaining the specialized care Greg requires to continue to hope for a future where he can be a part of the ongoing research for a cure. Physical therapy for his level of care is very limited and so far we have not been able to find any that will work with his level of injury.
With Insurance changes forced upon him due to being disabled, he no longer has skilled nursing care services available. He will have to pay for all his care out of pocket. This account has been able to provide necessary caregivers, Occupational Therapists, Equipment for Physical therapy that we are learning to use to help Greg exercise his muscles and bones to be weight bearing. He desperately wants to be strong and able to use a standing wheelchair one day soon. That will help him in so many ways. A standing wheelchair is not considered medical necessity and insurance rarely pays for them. Please donate if you can to help Greg get his standing wheelchair.
The CDC estimates that an individual living with a spinal cord injury will have between $500,000 to $3 million in lifetime out-of-pocket expenses.
To help offset such expenses, a fundraising campaign in Greg’s honor has been established with Help Hope Live, a trusted nonprofit organization that has been providing community-based fundraising guidance to patients and their families for more than 30 years. All donations are tax-deductible to the full extent allowed by law, are held by Help Hope Live in the South-Atlantic Spinal Cord Injury Fund, and are administered by Help Hope Live for injury-related expenses only. Please consider making a donation today and click the DONATE NOW bar.
How else can you help?
Host a fundraiser at your church/school/place of business
Place a coin bank at your place of business.
Purchase a Smalley Strong t-shirt at http://nestingproject.com/estore/category/helpingothers/pray-for-greg-smalley
Thanks to all of you in advance for your kindness and support of Greg and our family – together we can make a difference for Greg!
April Smalley
Good Morning!
If you have been following us along on our Facebook page, you know we have had many challenges since the beginning of this year. The short version is catheter clogging, spastic bladder, seizures, subarachanoid hemorrhage, medicine toxicity, insomnia, and finally off 7 meds to now....sleeping sleeping sleeping all the time.
Greg is on 7 less meds, but is now on valium in leiu of 5 of the meds. He sleeps all the time. So we are trying to figure that out now. Overall, he is doing SO much better than he was.
He is on less medicine, he no longer has a supra pubic, he has vest therapy at home, and we are sleeping through the night.
The big news for this year. All of your donations helped us to:
1. pay off our Handicap accessible van. Thank you.
2. purchase a back up manual wheelchair for when Greg's power chair was malfunctioning.
3. turn a rental power lift into a purchased power lift (for transferring him in and out of his bed to his chair)
4. with the rest we have been able to be reimbursed for some of the private pay for our hired caregiver.
Thank you. I cannot begin to explain the depth of the impact these 4 things make on our daily life.
Going forward we are trying to build a new home while paying for our existing home. We have a team of people that have stepped forward and up to help us in ways we just did not think were possible. We are praying hard and just moving forward with our goals not knowing how each milestone will be met, but believing they will. The power of prayer and community continue to amaze us. We feel so blessed to be living in such a faith filled state of active grace.
We are in need of building materials. If you have referrals, contacts or are able to donate: THANK YOU! Concrete, rock, sheet rock, etc. Gift certificates to Lowe's or Home Depot.
We are home now and working on finding a routine. Greg is doing well. He is very bored but starting to spend more time on his computer. In the future, we are planning on trying to keep Greg going to out patient Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy. Next week we will go to our first round of doctor appointments to try to get a home base team in place. The funds we raise here will go towards care-giving to give me some respite. I am 24/7 100% right now. We will also need a ceiling lift later on to help me with transfers. Thank you so much for following our life as it plays out and lifting us up in prayer and support.
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I know who was behind this now
ME
Greg, April, I continue to think and pray for you guys. My pray is that you will wIll walk again. Hope that new addition will work well for you....... I'm basically retired from Jones. We separated my office into three about a eighteen months ago. All three of them have won diversification trips. We plan on making McMinnville 'home base' and have a place in Pensacola Florida, where I grew up. We are leaning toward a live-a-board boat. Continued Prayers your way
Dave Wideman
Hey Greg and April. I came to visit you folks in the Shepherd Center. I am also in a wheelchair. My cousin Joy in Alabama told me about you. I made a small contribution to your fund today in my wife's name. As you know many folks are praying including us. My prayer is we are both walking and can watch the next Alabama vs Mississippi game in person. I will buy the tickets.
Jerry Watkins
Make checks payable to:
Help Hope Live
Note in memo:
In honor of Greg Smalley
Mail to:
Help Hope Live
2 Radnor Corporate Center
Suite 100
100 Matsonford Road
Radnor, PA 19087
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