Help Vinod’s family purchase a wheelchair-accessible van!

Story

In February 2023, Vinod Singh, a long time employee of Chai Pani, suffered a severe stroke. He was placed on life support and was in a coma for a week. When he regained consciousness he was unable to speak and, other than some movement in his right thumb, was completely paralyzed.

Vinod’s son, Kunal, came straight from India to help his family manage this enormous crisis as well as take over the family’s business producing pani puri shells.

Vinod’s insurance did not cover any rehabilitative therapies, and he did not receive proper treatment at his long-term care facility causing him to develop severe bed-sores.

Vinod’s family took matters into their own hands and started a 24-hour schedule to tend to him in the hospital, rotating his position constantly so the bed sores could heal. During this process Kunal, his sister and his mother learned how to operate all of the hospital equipment, check Vinod’s vitals, change his feeding tube, etc. They became experts in day-to-day care for him.

After several months the hospital told Vinod’s family that they had to discharge Vinod and recommended that he be moved to hospice care. His family was not ready to give up – they brought him home and purchased all of the equipment needed to recreate the hospital room at their home. They also started paying out-of-pocket for physical therapy, which was allowed Vinod to make slow and steady progress towards regaining voluntary movement.

All of this was possible because of the original GoFundMe, which raised over 55,000 for Vinod’s family. Over the last year that money has been an absolute lifeline for the family to help in purchasing medical equipment, arrange nurse visits, cover the innumerable costs that insurance doesn’t, pay for physical therapy, wheel-chair accessible transportation, and most of all help them put money into their business and keep their utilities paid and groceries in their fridge. Not much of that money is left.

Kunal has managed to grow the pani puri business so much that he now has more demand than he can meet. Many business outside of the Atlanta area are asking for pani puris shells, but Kunal can’t fit enough in his car to make the trips worthwhile.

Simultaneously Vinod’s physical therapy visits, which have been helping him regain movement, are not covered by insurance. His family has to pay out of pocket for the visits and pay for wheelchair-accessible transportation each visit.

Our goal is to help the family purchase a van with a wheelchair lift. This will allow Kunal to drive his father to physical therapy and save 150 each visit, which means Vinod can go more often and get more of a chance at recovery. It also allows Kunal to expand his deliveries and grow the pani puri business enough to hire a store manager, freeing up him and his sister to give more consistent care to their father and focus on the own futures.

Every dollar is a HUGE help to Vinod and his family, who have been stuck in a never ending cycle of struggling to make ends meet and provide Vinod with the care he needs. Please donate whatever you can, and share this page with everyone who can help.

Thank you.

Organizers :

Daniel Peach is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Karishma Thakur.