Most of us don't pay much attention to our health until suddenly it is taken away.

Who is Russ Parish?

Why should you care?

What should you do?

Russ is a great guy. He is an electrical engineer, but he is an even better guitar player. Click on this link for more information about Russ.

Russ suffered a Hemmorhaigic stroke (brain aneurysm) on Good Friday, April 2, 2010.

How would you feel if you had NO money coming in? Too many of us live paycheck to paycheck. What would you do if there was no paycheck? No unemployment check, either? no sick pay. nothing. Nada.

Right now he and Debbie have NO money coming in. They are living off savings. That's all well and good, and it shows their foresight in saving. But we all know that will not last forever.

Unfortunately in today's economy, engineers and other technical jobs are considered expendable. Even as today's world gets more complicated and technical, business and government tax laws make it easier for the people who understand such technology and help design and control it to be outsourced, to be used on a temporary basis. Don't get me started on the shortsighedness of such practices. Russ was working for Rockwell in Cleveland , but only as a contract worker. Contract workers don't get such things as sick pay.

His contract ended in July 2009. He was one of the last contract workers to be let go. Even someone as skilled as Russ was still a victim of the terrible economic times (The Great Recession) As a contract worker, he did have hospitalization insurance, but when the contract ran out, he had to pay for it on is own under COBRA laws. Thank God insurance was available to him and he was able to keep it!

He was called back to work at Rockwell, again only as a contractor, (they couldn't get along with out him) but he only worked 2 weeks and insurance coverage requires 4 weeks of work. how would you like to miss a deadline like that by only 2 weeks?

I figure his monthly insurance premium to be somewhere between $500 and $1000. Let's say $750. As long as he keeps paying $750 a month, insurance will pay most of his trememdous hospital bills from the cleveland clinic. His cobra coverage started in July 2009, so it will run out around January 2011.

Debbie is pretty much staying in cleveland and only coming home every few days. The red roof inn gives a very generous discounted rate of $50/night to cleveland clinic patients, but even with a deal, it starts to add up pretty quick. Since she is only coming home every 3rd or 4th day, she is saving on gas. These days it costs $50 to fill up your tank, and thats only good for 2 or 3 round trips to cleveland.

Here's a fact for you: Parking at the clinic is $10 a day. And it's not like you can find some other place to park.

Debbie does not leave the clinic, so she eats at the cafeteria. They have a pretty good selection of different things to eat, but still, it's going to cost at least $10 a day for a couple of meals.

If you're like everyone else, you realize the goal of this webpage is to help raise enough money to help carry Russ and Debbie for a while. After Russ is released from the hospital, he will need a lot of rehabilitation therapy. Russ is such a strong person, I'm sure he will have a great recovery. Do you know how long it will take? No one knows.

So, what can you do to help? Can you cover a month's cobra hospitalization premium? Can to cover a night at the red roof inn? A tank of gas? Surely you can help with a dinner in the hospital cafeteria or 1 day of parking.

What if it were you and your family? Imagine, for a moment, What you would do with no money coming in? How long would your savings last? What would you do when your savings ran out? How would you make the house payment? Or keep the utilities from being shut off?

Please click on the donation link and see how you can help.

Tell your friends about this web page and ask them to help.

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