Over a month ago, long-time islander Troy O’Neal suffered a stroke. He’s probably one of the strongest guys I know of. I don’t know him well at all, but I’ve seen him over the years at different events at Orcas Christian School. His family recently moved to North Carolina, and it is there that his stroke happened, when they were not longer medically insured after moving.
If you don’t know Troy personally, you would most likely recognize him – he was all over the island driving every day for San Juan Sanitation. He was a hard worker, and here is the information his wife, Torah, wrote for the GoFundMe she set up for him:
Hello all!
My husband Troy had a stroke on Sunday, and has lost mobility on the right side of his body, trouble putting thoughts into words, memory, and slurred speech. They are still trying to safely bring his blood pressure down to a safe and manageable level before moving him to acute stroke therapy, but he has been getting a little bit of movement with a lot of concentration. For now he is laying in a hospital bed all day bored out of his mind, and wanting to start his therapy to hurry it along. If you know my husband Troy, you know that he is a proud, hardworking, man who’s main priority in life is to take care of and provide for his family, so sitting still is nearly impossible. We have our 16-year old daughter Kyrah, 10-year old Karson, and 1-year old Persefani living with us in our home that he is proud to be buying not renting. He has been the sole provider as the head of household, while we got the kids settled after our move. Our plan was for me to start looking for work to supplement our income and the costs of all the kid’s sports travel and other extracurriculars, and my hope is to continue with that plan. There is the possibility he will need in home care for some period of time, in which case I would need to stay home to help him. There are so many things that are up in the air with stroke recovery it’s difficult to plan.
When we moved to North Carolina we lost our medical insurance, so we are in the process of finding out if we can get some, any, or all of his medical covered.
In the meantime, with all of these things up in the air, we used all of our reserves to move; a down payment on the house, the cars, and living basics. We have nothing to fall back on for our monthly bills , gas for driving to Wilmington and back everyday, food, and other necessities. We are applying for social services help, and trying to find anything else that might be available.
I am unsure of how much we are going to need to get through all of this, but I do know this will be a long road for us all, and the last thing I want him to worry about is his inability to provide. I am certain that even if he ends up getting some medical assistance, we will still have to pay for the ambulance ride, helicopter ride to Wilmington, and the emergency room and stroke wing stay. Even with my application for financial aid through the hospital, there will be a large balance. Hopefully everything after he leaves the stroke center and heads to the stroke therapy center will start his full or partial coverage.
A dear friend bought Emma a plane ticket to come be here with her family supporting her dad and help around the house. We are so very blessed to have his mom and Ed, his brother Peter and Walter and their families, and sister Karen and her husband all here to support him by keeping his spirits up visiting & calling. They also have the ability to help with the kids, and help keep our spirits up.
We are all going through something right now, and struggle to keep our heads above water, so every little bit is helpful and greatly appreciated. Even if it’s a call or encouraging message. Troy has always been too proud to ask people for help, but has come to realize that there is a time when your pride needs to take a step back, and let people who love you help.
Thank you in advance for any help, positive thoughts, and prayers!
Love,The O’Neal Family
(Troy, Torah, Emma, Kyrah, Karson, & P)
Here is Torah’s most recent update:
July 14, 2022
Hey guys!
Troy’s coming home tomorrow!! I’m going to head down to pick him up in the morning for discharge. I spent the afternoon meeting his PT and Speech & OT teams going over the exercises they want him to continue to work on and progress to higher levels on. We’ll get him set up next week for intensive outpatient rehab, and be talking with the VA to sign up for any programs they have that he can be a part of. Hopefully we’ll get him working with a PT with the VA so we won’t be at risk of owing for this aftercare if Medicaid doesn’t work out. If he’s down and out for 12 months, there will be no problems with Medicaid paying for all of the expenses associated with the stroke, including ambulance and helicopter ride.
I will send a quick update and a picture tomorrow to show you how much better he looks, and how much stronger he is getting.
Thank you everyone ♥️♥️♥️
It is wonderful that he is getting better, but please take a moment to donate by clicking here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/troy-oneals-stroke-recovery-expenses.
