The community is rallying behind a Wyndham family in its time of urgent need.
John Carnevali, 45, has been left with a hypoxic brain injury and cognitive deficits after suffering a heart attack, cardiac arrest and stroke in the early hours of June 3.
His brain was deprived of oxygen for about 20 minutes during the ordeal and his rehabilitation is slow.
But John is already defying the odds and his family is heartened by the small, steady gains he is making every day.
He is able to eat, drink and swallow, and is re-learning to walk and go to the toilet. His memory is patchy, often he thinks he’s in either 1992 or 2002 and forgets where he lives or how old he is.
His wife, Melissa, says the family is in a kind of “limbo”.
“It can improve over time, but they’re [the doctors] saying to me he’s not going to be the same,” Melissa said. “It’s the worst kind of limbo – not knowing.”
The family has been struck with a number of health concerns over the years.
John has had golden staph, sepsis, two prior heart attacks, 11 stents and a total knee replacement in recent years. Melissa has had a pulmonary embolism and needed fertility treatment to have their son, Hunter, now 10, who has an intellectual disability and autism.
In 2016, John’s 20-year-old niece, Hope, died on her front lawn in Hoppers Crossing after she was struck down with thunderstorm asthma.
But Melissa says they have lived a charmed life ever since meeting each other on the dancefloor of Geelong’s Lyric nightclub when she was 19 and John was 24.
“He’s my best friend,” she said.
“We’ve been together 22 years and we always talk about how fortunate we are to have each other.
“He’s talking to me at the moment, but it’s not the man that I know. He doesn’t remember where we met, he doesn’t remember how long we’ve been married, he doesn’t remember any of the special things that we’ve done together. He’s recognising me now and he’s stopped calling me the wrong name.”
John is in Sunshine Hospital, where he’s likely to stay for a few more weeks before being transferred to a rehabilitation facility. It’s unclear if he’ll ever be able to return home, but Melissa is determined to think positively.
“He may not know what year it is or why he’s in the hospital, but his courage and strength are shining through in spades,” she said.
“He’s going to be the one the doctors recall as that patient that shocked them all, I just know it. John is just so positive, he has such a fun and joking personality. He never gives up, he’s a fighter.”
John, who works as a scaffolder and shop steward, is well-known in the Wyndham community as a member of the Werribee Victorian Clay Target Club, the Little River Hotel Social Golf Club and the Victorian Waterski and Kite Flyer Association. He is
also the under-12 Seabrook Sonics basketball coach.
A GoFundMe page to help with the family’s medical and rehabilitation expenses has raised nearly $27,000 in less than two weeks.
Chantel Poole, who set up the online fundraiser, said she was amazed by the number of people who wanted to pitch in and help the family.
“I’ve had the florist in Station Place ring me … she’s started up a donation tin, because he was a customer there,” she said. “I’ve had clinics ring and say they remember him and start fundraising, too.”
The Italian Sports Club will host a fundraising event on July 28. For more information, contact the club on 9741 1225 or go to iscw.com.au
To donate: bit.ly/2KdnWA8
