Bart Cox - recovery from a stroke
He mihi nui ki a koe
Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou ka ora ai te iwi.
With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive.
He mihi nui ki a koe - thank you so much. Bart and Izzy are just so appreciative of the support and aroha that you have all shown.
Background
Bart had a stroke on the evening of Friday 5 July, and received wonderful care in Masterton Hospital. The blood clot lodged in the part of his brain that controls speech. As a result he is suffering from something called aphasia, and essentially will need to learn again how to talk (although he can say some words). Bart is attending the Acute Brain Injury Unit in the Hutt Valley from 20 July. Unfortunately this intensive therapy is not covered by the public health system and it costs up to a $1000 per day - and the average stay is 30 to 40 days, so we are looking at $30K to $40K. We set an initial goal of $30K - and this target was met in three and half days. Absolutely amazing effort - thank you so much. There will be other costs facing Bart in his recovery, so every little bit that you can give will help. The appeal is open till 11 August: Give-a-Little page.
Support Crew
Want to help in a practical way? There will be many ways to help - particularly supplying meals to both Bart and Izzy, and helping transport Bart between Muritai and the ABI Unit. Please join the Support Crew to check-in to see how things are going and to provide an easy way for you to support him during this time. Have a read of the tips at the left before you join though.
What is Support Crew?
Support Crew is a website that allows those dealing with a life changing event to easily co-ordinate the meals and support they need from their friends, family, colleagues, neighbours and the community. Need more information about Support Crew? Check them out here: supportcrew.co
Meals
Izzy's time is best spent being present with Bart and working with him on his rehab, so help with meals, either pre-prepared or fresh would be great. There are no real dietary restrictions. Normally Izzy is vegetarian but her instincts are to loosen up on that during this period and Bart’s been enjoying all sorts. Just make sure there's lots of tasty vegetables. :) Sign up to Support Crew to book dates for delivering meals.
Visitors
Message from Izzy: Visitors are awesome and important for Bart’s spirit but it’s really hard to deal with people dropping in. I’m planning our days carefully around rest and rehab and exercise and personal cares, so an unplanned visitor can really throw things out of whack and cause a lot of stress. However, planned visits are LOVELY. And the enjoyment of anticipating a visitor gives really nice structure, and Bart can think about what he would like to talk about, and even practice peoples names. Text is best: 027 3808 123 Then I can get back to people in my own time. Suggest a couple of options for dates and times that would work for you. If you are dropping off a meal you can combine that with a 45 minute visit, or stay and have dinner with us.
Photos of Bart
Here is a photo album of Bart. Please feel free to add in photos of Bart that you may have. When you add a photo please write in people's names and where photo was taken if possible.
Resources
This page was created by Kris Ericksen.
Please email him if you would like anything added (or changed!)
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Support Crew tips:
Before you join a couple of points:
• The link below takes you to a sign in page. There is no group email and password, simply create your own login and password and this will automatically take you to the support page.
• The page is easier to understand on a desktop view so if you can, I recommend for the first time use it on a desktop (the support crew team said they’re working on a better phone feature for future).
• On your phone, the default way to help is the “instant ways to help” area – these are paid options (i.e they allow you to order in take out for Izzy and Bart for example) – there should be another option called “offer support” – this allows you to offer something that you can do personally for Izzy and Bart like cook meals or clean the house (whatever you fancy) and is not a paid option.
• The most important thing to look for are the “needs” / “needs calendar” – this is what Izzy has identified as a need – you can accept this and it will allocate your name to it – that way Izzy knows who is doing it and that it is covered.
• The simplest way (IMHO) of checking needs is to look at the Needs Calender. Click on the link in the top right corner. Needs that unallocated are green. Those that someone has volunteered for are black.
• You do not need to keep checking the page - you will receive an email as "support crew" about new needs etc.
• Otherwise have a totu and read the info available on the page, but I thought the above would help a bit for the non-tech peeps.
(Thanks Toni for setting up the Support Crew page.)
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