49 Year Old Amputee Seeks Financial Help For Handicapped Accessible Home
by Gregory Crouch
I lost my leg in July 2010 due to a diabetes related ulcer. In February of 2010 I had an endarterectomy, which got infected 10 days after my surgery. At the time of my surgery, I had a small dime-size ulcer on my foot, which was almost healed. When I got the infection, it traveled to the weakest part of my body, which was my foot and caused the ulcer to become a massive wound. My doctor in Nashville along with the Home Health Agency and my wife worked really hard to save my foot. We spent 3 months of hard work changing the wound-vac on my foot and changing the dressings on my neck, which had to be opened back up to heal from the inside out. Unfortunately, gangrene settled in my foot and I ended up losing it anyway. I now have a prosthesis but have difficulty with my balance because of foot drop in my other foot that developed after the infection along with the neuropathy I already had. I am now on disability. We now struggle from month to month with what my wife brings home and what I draw on disability. My wife has had to miss a lot of work to care for me and take me to doctors' appointments. We have lost our home in foreclosure and now live in an apartment, which has bedroom stairs that I cannot climb, so I sleep on the couch downstairs. We also had to file for bankruptcy in which we kept our car so we could go to my doctors' appointments. It will be paid for in December. I am currently drawing disability and my wife is still employed. I cannot work now due to not being able to stand on my feet for long periods at a time and the neuropathy. We have not yet applied for any grants or asked for donations at this time. I would like to ask if there is any kind of grant that could help us with a down payment on a small one-level home with no stairs that would be more handicapped accessible for me. Any assistance or advice would be gratefully appreciated.
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