Rusty’s Story

Site created on April 7, 2019

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place.  We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.

Rusty was brought to the emergency room on Saturday March 30th by his wife Mary and son Robert after feeling very unwell and behaving strangely. The ER team at St. Elizabeth suspected he had a stroke and did a scan of his brain. They found a brain aneurysm that was leaking blood. After considering air-care to move him to Good Samaritan, they took him in an ambulance because the helicopter couldn't fly in the rain and wind. 

On Sunday March 31st, he had a surgery to stop the bleeding called endovascular coiling. The surgeon was very pleased with the results of the surgery, but the next day they found that blood left over around his brain was causing more complications. They were unable to do another operation because it would cause more harm than good. It gave us another bad scare, but with medication they were able to get the blood moving better than it was.

At this point he has still been sedated most of the time, and we're unsure of what recovery will look like. We know it will be a long road, but with physical, speech, and occupational therapy we're hopeful to have Rusty back to himself eventually.  We will post updates as necessary to keep everyone informed. Thank you for all the prayers and support we've received so far. 

Newest Update

August 19, 2019

Journal entry by Tory Erpenbeck —

Since Rusty's been sick, he hasn't been able to move his right hand. But over the past few days he has started gaining control over some of his fingers!! While luckily he is left handed, he will be able to do so much more when he regains strength in his right hand.
We are fighting with insurance and figuring out what the next steps will be since Gateway Rehab is releasing him for "not progressing enough" - even though this looks like huge progress to me. He will be going back to Madonna Manor soon and then coming home once we have everything ready for him. But seeing him move his bad hand when we weren't sure if he would regain control of it brings us some much needed joy!
Read More of the journal titled "August 19, 2019"
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