Bill Hosteter

Welcome to our CaribngBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.

On Friday, July 22, our family was wrapping up our much anticipated vacation in Isle of Palms, South Carolina, to celebrate Mother and Daddy's 50th wedding anniversary.  Prior to the trip, Daddy highlighted two things from his bucket list that he wanted to cross off while on vacation:  take a helicopter ride and ride on a jet ski.  The helicopter ride was done earlier in the week, and we rented jet skis on Friday.  While riding the jet ski, Daddy fell off twice but didn't appear to have any injuries.  We got back to the house and he seemed fine except for some numbness in his left arm, which we attributed to an existing sore shoulder.  A short while later he tried to move to the couch but could not stand up.  We called an ambulance and while the paramedics were taking him out of the house, he began exhibiting stroke symptoms.  Upon arrival at the hospital, a CT Scan was done and showed a 3.5 cm blood clot on the motor strip on the right side of his brain.  He was transported to the Neurology ICU at Medical University South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston.

It has been a challenging road to date.  The hospital staff have been working diligently to control Daddy's heart rate, blood sugar, breathing and seizures so that the focus can turn to healing his brain.  As we've learned with brain injuries, you take things one day at a time.  We don't have a timeframe for how long he'll need to stay at MUSC - we would obviously love to get him back to Indiana as soon as possible to be closer to family and friends  In the meantime though, we have encountered numerous angels in Charleston who have helped with lodging, connected us to key hospital staff, and provided us prayers and support. 

Amy, Clay and Karen will update this journal as we learn more about Daddy's recovery.  Many of you have asked what you can do - right now, your prayers and continued support are the most helpful.  We likely have a long road ahead, and will be needing to lean on friends and family in the coming months.