Hope For Chad 2010

On October 27, 2010 Chad Andrew Barrier should have been celebrating his 28th birthday. But instead he lay in a hospital bed with an anoxic brain injury at Kindred Acute Care Hospital in Riviera Beach. His eyes are open but he can only respond by blinking on a good day. His mother sits at his bedside day in and day out frail with grief. He has been this way since February 24, 2010 when he suffered complications from medicine he was prescribed for a torn rotator cuff.

Chad came into the world a healthy, beautiful little boy. By the time he was 10 years old, he wore a smile so big he was a popular South Florida model appearing in ads for Nestle, Neutrogena, and Cocoa Cola. He continued to model in print ads and commercials until he was 14 years old. While he was in high school, Chad worked assisting an elderly man cooking for him, taking him to the doctors and helping him with house hold chores. Chad loved caring for people and had hoped to one day be in the Coast Guard or be a physical therapist and work with the handicapped. But all that changed when he had a cardiac arrest and his brain was oxygen deprived.

Here it is eight months later. Chad has received very little if any physical therapy at Kindred Acute Care Hospital. However, Chad was transferred to Reveille Rehabilitation in Jupiter on November 10, 2010. Reveille is a new rehabilitation center specializing in anoxic brain injury. The next 90 days are critical for Chad's recovery. But, his insurance does not cover all the important therapies he needs and his insurance runs out in six months. His complete recovery will take a long time.

His mother knows he will recover. She believes in Chad's will to live because she has seen him fighting his way through major illnesses even as he lies there with a brain injury. She believes he has a purpose and he will come out of this and be able to fulfill his dream to work with the handicapped. But that cannot happen without the funding for his rehabilitation.

A fundraising event is being held at Boston's on the Beach in Delray Beach on November 27, 2010 from 4pm to 6pm to raise money for Chad's therapy. The event will feature comedian Richy Lala and the new emerging singer song writer Taylor Loren, a childhood friend of Chad's. Tickets for the event are $10. There will also be prizes raffled off. For more information click the events page.