One family, two battles: Sterling family faces stroke recovery, rare disease diagnosis

STERLING — A Sterling family is seeking community support after a “perfectly normal day” changed their lives forever.

Jeremy Hunter suffered a severe stroke May 20 that resulted in emergency surgery to remove a large area of his skull to reduce brain swelling. He recalled having a bad headache the night before but assumed it was just from being worn out after his swing shift as a maintenance electrician.

“I was just getting up and not feeling the best,” Hunter recalled. “I had to work nights that week, and I texted my boss to call off work. An hour later, I was picked up by an EMT.”

Hunter was in his bathroom when a tear in one of his carotid arteries led to the stroke, leaving him collapsed on the floor. His fiancee, Shaunte Padilla, found him later that evening.

“He seemed like he was doing a lot better that morning,” Padilla said of the day after the headache. “He walked the girls and I out to the car, said goodbye and love you to everybody, smiled, waved, and then I didn’t hear from him until I came home that night and I found him in our downstairs bathroom against the door.”

Padilla said emergency medical providers had to climb in through the window to reach Hunter.

He recently returned home after several weeks of intense physical, occupational, speech and vision therapy at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago.

Although doctors are optimistic about Hunter’s progress, he said they have not commented on his long-term outlook.

“His neurosurgeon said his end goal was for Jeremy to be able to walk down the street assisted with a cane or a person standing by him, but he’s already doing that,” Padilla said. “He wasn’t sure if movement in his arm would ever come back, but he is starting to get a little bit of movement in it.”

While Hunter’s progress along the slow road to recovery has provided some hope, his family is navigating another challenge – mounting medical bills and the unanswered question of whether he will be able to work again.

Hunter is currently receiving short-term disability and Family and Medical Leave Act benefits, but those payments will not last forever.

“Nobody’s been able to say what is going to happen,” Padilla said. “Can he return to work eventually or will he have to go on long-term disability? Is it just a wait-and-see on what he can do? That’s the only part where we’re stuck. A year from now, where is he gonna be?”

For now, Padilla’s employer is letting her work from home, coming into the office when she can. However, the reduction and possible long-term loss of Hunter’s income still hangs over the family.

“We’re focused on making sure the bills are covered,” Padilla said. “He makes decent money but now we’re only getting half of that.”

Unfortunately, this is not the family’s first time dealing with a life-changing medical event. Their 4-year-old daughter, Elise, was born with a rare genetic disorder, Hurler’s Syndrome (MPS1).

Although the disease is considered terminal, there are treatments available that can increase a person’s life expectancy. Doctors told the family they had two options.

“We could do a stem cell transplant, which is very dangerous. A lot of people won’t do it,” Padilla said. “Or we could do enzyme replacement therapy, but that won’t protect her brain because the enzyme can’t go past the blood-brain barrier, and they said that will cause her to decline as well.”

Padilla said that without either treatment, most MPS1 patients do not live past the age of 10. The family decided to pursue a stem cell transplant at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

“At three months old, she did 11 days of chemotherapy, and then got her new cells, and we’ve just gone from there,” Padilla said.

Although the treatment is risky, Padilla said they have watched it benefit Elise over the past three years.

“She is the sassiest little girl,” Padilla said with a smile. “If you didn’t know she had something, she seems like a very normal child.”

A benefit is planned to assist the family. The benefit will be from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, July 12, at Nick’s Tap, 1301 Prophetstown Road in Rock Falls.

The event will include live music, a silent auction, 50/50 and half hog raffles, a bake sale, a bounce house, face painting and more. All proceeds will help offset Hunter and Elise’s medical costs.

The family has also set up a GoFundMe page and is accepting donations through Venmo and CashApp.

“People can also reach out to me through my Facebook page if they’d like to help,” Padilla said. “If you’re not comfortable with GoFundMe, gas cards and Walmart cards would also help.”