Yesterday, August 8th, started like any ordinary day. Roger left home to grab food for his family. No one could have imagined that within a matter of moments, their entire world would change.
When Roger returned home, he told his family that he had a headache. While still holding the food he had just brought home, he suddenly collapsed. He complained of being in pain and feeling extremely hot. His last words before becoming unresponsive were “I barely made it home.”
Those words have stayed with all of us.
Somehow, in the middle of something going terribly wrong inside his body, Roger made it home. Something in him knew he needed to get back to Madison and their five children. He made it to the place and the people who mean everything to him.
Cherokee Regional EMTs responded, and Roger was taken for emergency medical care. Doctors discovered a large brain bleed affecting his cerebellum. The situation was extremely serious, and he was immediately Life Flighted to Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
After arriving in Sioux Falls, Roger was rushed into emergency brain surgery. Thankfully, the surgery itself was successful. However, Roger has not yet been able to wake from the anesthesia and sedation on his own and is currently in a coma.
Right now, there are so many things we simply do not know.
We don’t know how long it will take Roger to wake up. We don’t know what recovery will look like when he does. We don’t know how long he will remain in Sioux Falls or what rehabilitation and care may be needed afterward.
What we do know is that Roger should not have to fight this alone, and his family should not have to carry everything else alone while he does.
Madison will be spending as much time as possible in Sioux Falls so that Roger has his wife beside him while he fights to wake up and begin recovering. At the same time, their five children are back home, with school beginning within the next two weeks. In what should have been a season of backpacks, school clothes, first-day pictures and normal family chaos, these children are instead facing something no child should have to understand.
For the foreseeable future, neither Roger nor Madison will be able to work as they normally would. The expenses of maintaining their home, caring for five children, traveling back and forth to Sioux Falls, meals, gas, lodging and everyday bills will continue even while their lives are essentially standing still.
That is why we are asking our family, friends, community and anyone who comes across Roger’s story to surround this family right now.
We don’t want Madison sitting beside her husband wondering how the bills will be paid. We don’t want Roger waking up to a mountain of financial stress while beginning what may be a long road to recovery. And we don’t want their five children worrying about anything other than being kids and having their mom and dad come home.
Right now, Madison’s job is to hold Roger’s hand, talk to him, love him and remind him that his family is waiting for him.
Our job is to help carry everything else.
Every donation, no matter the amount, will help with household expenses, necessities for their five children, travel to and from Sioux Falls, meals, lodging and the unexpected expenses that come with a medical emergency of this magnitude.
If you aren’t able to donate, please consider sharing Roger’s story. Please keep Roger, Madison and their five children in your thoughts and prayers as they face the days ahead.
Yesterday, Roger said he barely made it home.
He fought to make it home to his family then, and now we are praying and believing with everything we have that he will fight his way back to them again.
Thank you for helping us make sure Madison, Roger and their children do not have to carry this fight alone.
