Kaela Ann Crouch

Kaela is a 35 year old single woman who has spent the last eight years fighting to regain her independence after an unexpected medical event. When Kaela was 25 doctors found a benign brain tumor, by accident. Because they had no idea how long the tumor had been there, they began to monitor it. After a year and a half of monitoring, the tumor had grown and began to press on her spinal cord. Though it was a dangerous surgery, the tumor had to come out!

After the surgery, Kaela suffered blood clots and a stroke. A month later she endured a second surgery to place a permanent brain shunt to drain excess spinal fluid. She was in the hospital for four months. Kaela spent hours in occupational and physical therapy to gain back strength, relearning to talk, sit up and feed herself again. While she has worked hard, the tumor was located in the brain cerebellum, which controls all of her motor skills. This has left her with balance issues and some ataxia(lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements). Though Kaela can walk a short distance with contact assistance and a walker, she primarily uses a wheelchair to get around.

Kaela was half way through her second year of teaching high school Spanish when the tumor had to be removed. Though she had to give up her dream job, she cherishes the time she had there. Kaela is an avid reader and writer. She is actually in the process of writing a novel and some poetry. She also loves watching movies, mini series and sports. Her favorites are police detective stories and basketball!

Insurance has covered most of Kaela’s medical expenses, including her current wheelchair and initial physical therapy. Even though Kaela’s family has helped when they can, Kaela has been paying for her personalized exercise based rehabilitation therapy out of her own pocket for the last five years. She would really like to get an accessible van and possibly an upgrade to her wheelchair, as she will soon be getting a service dog and will need easier mobility and transportation.

A used accessible van costs in excess of $75,000 and is not covered by insurance. Kaela has chosen to fundraise with the non profit Help Hope Live in part because donations are tax deductible for contributors and will only be used to cover medical and related expenses.

Please help keep Kaela’s beautiful smile shining and donate to Help Hope Live in Kaela’s honor today. Also, please pass this on to any friends and family to give too. Any amount will help. Thank you so much for your generous support!