Community helps family on way to recovery

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Published on Thursday, February 18, 2016

By Kira Paterson

Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press

A family from Brookdale has been receiving immense support from friends and strangers over the past few weeks. In January of 2015, Rob Hollohan was in a snowmobile accident and suffered a severe brain injury. He has since been on the road to recovery and the family cannot afford the latest therapy he needs. A friend of the family, Kylia Carew, set up a gofundme account on Jan. 28 of this year to help raise the money they need.

Already, the site has raised over $9,000 of their $10,000 goal. “I think it’s just absolutely wonderful,” said Rob’s wife, Vickie, “I can’t believe it.”

The therapy Rob needs is for his vision. When he had his accident, he was flung off the snowmobile and landed on the left side of this head, detaching the retina in his left eye. When he had emergency brain surgery, they also reattached the retina. But because he was in a coma for three weeks, doctors had said that he likely would never regain the use of that eye, because it wasn’t used for so long after the surgery, Vickie explained. 

It took five months for his left eye to be able to open, but when it did, he could see with it. “He covered his right eye and he was reading what was on the wall on a poster,” Vickie exclaimed, explaining how much it shocked the both of them. He couldn’t move it at first, it was fixed to the side, so he couldn’t see clearly with both eyes. After therapy, he was able to move his eye more to the centre, but it still doesn’t quite line up with his right eye. As a result, he has no depth perception. Doctors have said that he will need prism glasses and special therapy teaching him how to use the glasses in order to correct his vision. The glasses and the therapy will cost about $10,000, which is what they will use the money raised on gofundme to pay for. 

His vision wasn’t the only thing affected by his brain injury. At first, he showed no signs of brain activity following the emergency surgery. In fact, on the fifth day after the surgery, Vickie said doctors sat down with her and the family and told them he would remain in a vegetative state and it was time to consider pulling him off life support. Vickie wouldn’t accept that and the next morning, she got a call from the doctor telling her that Rob had responded to them when they asked him to move his finger. After that, he spent over 10 months in four different hospitals, undergoing occupational and physical therapy. 

He proved all of his doctors wrong, Vickie said. Every prediction they made of how much he could recover was surpassed. “[The doctors] say [to Rob], ‘Well you know you might not be exactly the way you were before, because, face it, you have had a severe brain injury,’ and he said, ‘Yeah, I know that, and I won’t be the way I was before... I’ll be even better,’” Vickie stated, explaining that it’s been his determination and positivity that has gotten him this far. His left side was useless at first and doctors said he would never be able to use it again, but now, he is able to walk and use his left hand, though it is still weaker than his right side. He is continuing to show progress in his physical therapy, and the therapy will continue until he stops improving, explained Vickie. 

Having to pay for the transportation to and from Winnipeg for therapy every week, along with Vickie having to quit her job to take care of Rob have led to their savings being depleted. When they learned about the glasses and vision therapy Rob needs now, “I said to [Carew], I don’t know how I’m going to come up with this money to fix his vision,” said Vickie, “And then [Carew] said, ‘You know what? I think I need to do this [gofundme campaign], if you’re okay with it, and tell people out there Rob’s story and see what kind of a response we get.’”

The response was bigger than they expected. Since the account was put up, CBC, the Brandon Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press have published the story of Rob’s remarkable recovery, which has inspired so many. “We have people coming over all the time dropping in, saying, ‘Rob, don’t give up, you’ve come so far, you amazed us,’” Vickie said.  People that the Hollohans have never met before come by to meet them and offer to help in any way they can. 

Once they meet their fundraising goal of $10,000, Vickie said they will be able to get the glasses and start therapy within a week. She said that if they can pull together the money for the glasses and therapy, they will figure out the transportation aspect. 

Vickie wanted to reiterate “just how grateful we are and thankful for everybody’s support and for Kylia for coming up with this idea and starting it for us because without her, it would’ve never happened.”