GRATITUDE. Exactly 4 months ago today, our co-worker and my friend Eric Zangroniz was hit and run on his motorcycle while on his way home from the grocery store. In the last 4 months he has endured 10 weeks in the Critical Care Unit at UCSD, an extended medically induced coma, respiratory failure, traumatic brain injuries, multiple surgeries, multiple medical facilities and health care providers. He has endured two different nursing home / rehab facilities that provided less than stellar care. Today I checked him in to the Alvarado Hospital Acute Rehabilitation unit for 7 days of intense levels of speech, physical and occupational therapy. This moment took a tremendous amount of fighting, arguing, negotiating and even pleading with medical providers and insurance administrators in order to occur. This is where he should have been placed when he left UCSD. Throughout this process Eric has been willing to cooperate with every single health care provider, therapist, caregiver, administrator and bureaucrat. Even more difficultly and importantly, Eric has remained committed to allowing me to fight this fight so that he gets the medical care he needs to live a powerful and rewarding life. Lately he has had many bad days as well as wanted to quit and just settle many times. In spite of all of this, he has persevered and continued to move forward throughout the entire ordeal. As a team, he and I have had amazing support during this awful experience and journey. We could not even begin to create a complete list of people to thank because of the sheer numbers of them and some of you reading this. Erics friends have truly supported him as well. Particular thank you to Little Eric for all of the love and care to Franklin, Zs dog. The Traumatic Brain Injury Support Group at UCSD, the San Diego Brain Injury Foundation, the Southern Caregivers Association, his case manager at Alvarado Hospital - Nancy Berger who fought so hard on his behalf with me to get the coverage through the health insurance, the speech therapists at Encinitas and Lifehouse Skilled Nursing Facility, his sister Ana Zangroniz who came for a week and stepped in to really help out when it was desperately needed, his friends who have visited, called and texted.... and so many many more we cant begin to thank you enough. The assistance has spanned from his amazing nurses at UCSD who literally saved his life to our co-workers who stepped up and worked so very much harder to cover for me allowing me more time to help Z recover. Brad, Retta, Sergio and Justin - you are amazing and I truly appreciate that you all took on more responsibility at work and kept things managed. Thank you to all of our clients clients who have been very accommodating by allowing me some slack and extra time to complete projects when I needed it because of Erics needs. All of my friends have listened to and supported me from day 1 and I am grateful. Richard, you were there for me in the darkest hour when I lost hope. You shined a light for me on the path needed. Your patience and compassion during this has been a huge reminder of why I married you in the first place. And then, most importantly, Eric Zangroniz himself. Z, I am so incredibly proud of you. You have shown a courage and determination that most would not be capable of maintaining. You have continued to fight and recover. You have been and are an inspiration for other TBI survivors as they have told you over and over. You have endured me pushing you so very hard when all you really wanted was to be left alone and allowed to sleep. You have tolerated me reminding you 10,000 plus times to cover your throat when you swallow and give me more notice when you needed to pee. You have put up with horrible administrators at both nursing homes and kept faith in yourself even when they stopped caring or became obstacles to overcome in your path of recovery. You have persevered and are absolutely amazing. You show us all an amazing courage and passion for life. You demonstrate a drive to not only survive but to succeed. I am honored to have you in my life, as are every one of the people whose lives you have touched in the last 4 months. You inspire me and I am grateful.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 00:35:11 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015