For those who are hearing of this for the first time, our favorite Coach, catcher, March Madness Commish and satirical genius Rick Chandler suffered a significant stroke on July 3rd. As of July 25th he is still under critical care at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose. He has a long and difficult road ahead of him.
What happened: from what we can piece together from folks who spoke with him that day and from what he was able to communicate in the brief moments he was awake at the hospital, Rick woke up with a headache but seemingly nothing out of the ordinary. He was doing a driving errand to help a friend (typical Rick) and while stopping for gas, his stroke hit. He fell and hit his head, and fortunately there were bystanders there to call for help and get him transportation to the hospital.
Since then he's been in and out of consciousness. He is capable of breathing on his own, but has a breathing tube inserted to assist him as fatigue sets in each day. He has been responding to conversations at times, and also has waved his right hand seemingly to acknowledge visitors, but he's unable to speak and at times is unresponsive.
The family is truly grateful to all who have provided concern, support and generous offers of financial assistance. For now, it is believed the cost of Rick's care will be covered by insurance and the medical staff has been helping coordinate that. We will update if that changes and additional help is needed.
For those who would like to, the family would accept donations for rides and supplemental care of Rick's mother. As many of you know, Rick was providing care to his mom, who is dealing with health issues of her own. Rick's friends have created a GoFundMe for those who'd like to contribute to that cause. You can donate at
https://www.gofundme.com/f/5dcnn-rick-chandler-family-care-fund.A group of colleagues and softball teammates visited Rick on July 23rd and presented him with a signed jersey and ball for him to see when he wakes up. We've been sharing our great Rick stories, a favorite being Rick's signature move on the softball diamond. Rick would play catcher, and in seemingly every game would end up involved in a close play at the plate. Which in beer league softball, can be contentious. And Rick loved it. His "move" was whenever such a play resulted in the 3rd out of an inning, he would fire the ball downward with a celebratory spike. Much to the delight of all of us - and the disdain of our opponents!
Rick, we can't wait to see you spike that ball one more time! Go Rick Go!
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Adding Rick's sister Kadee's first journal post to the story for more detail:
Hello everyone. This is Rick's little sister Katie ( Kadee actually ). This has been the hardest 3 weeks for my family as we watch our beloved Rick, the proverbial "Rock" of our clan, fight to overcome some unsurmountable obstacles.
He was the main care giver of our mom and this has hit her so hard, not to mention the dog, Jersey. Rick left home that morning telling mom he was going to work and he'd be back in a couple of hours and then I had to call her and tell her he was on life support in Santa Clara just a few hours later.
I am in the Roseville area, about 30 miles East of Sacramento and run a full time photography business. I have to be shooting most weekends and then I can get to the Bay Area about 3 days a week. I am most grateful for the time I can be there for Rick, and for our mom. Every time I see Rick I tell him she is okay and being taken care of and remind him how many people are here pulling for him and praying for him.
Currently, we don't know how long it will be until he's able to respond or wake up essentially. I am not sure if he hears us when we talk to him, but I am going to ride the assumption that he can, and it makes me feel better to just talk to him anyway so I do. I would encourage anyone that comes in to tell him what's going on and to tell him what time it is or what day it is. We try to do that everyday.
We welcome anyone that would like to visit Rick, but ask that you come in small groups and make sure to avoid the shift changes in the morning between 7:30-8:30am and 3:30-4:30pm. The nurses will be taking care of his basic needs during these times and you will not be allowed in.
Rick will be moved, at some point, to an acute care facility, we believe in the next two weeks possibly and I am fighting to have him moved here to my area where I can get to him everyday and check his progress and keep the staff on point. Right now, we're considering a facility in Folsom, CA.
I will do my best to keep everyone updated on his condition, his location and any needs we may have.
I would love to see your stories, anecdotes, photos of Rick - my mom loves to see them and so do I.
Please feel free to invite people to this page that are concerned about Rick and I'll leave it to your discretion on who they are. It is helpful to come to one space and update than several spaces, and text messages, etc.
Again, I thank you all for caring so much and I know Rick would be genuinely surprised and so moved by your love for him.
