Trek Author Suffers Stroke
3 min read
A holiday vacation in Florida turned out to be anything but relaxing for Star Trek author Peter David, who suffered a stroke while at Disney with his family.
Thankfully, David survived the stroke and is making progress in his recovery, but medical bills are piling up and fellow authors are getting the word out about how David’s fans can help.
“Peter had a stroke,” said his wife Kathleen. “So we are at the beginning of what is going to be a long road. We have a diagnosis, which is a small stroke in the pons section of his brain. Now we have to figure out where we go from here and how we get Peter back to what he was before the stroke. We know that a total recovery is slim because damage to the brain doesn’t go away but the brain can be trained to work around the damage and give Peter back what he has lost.”
While on vacation, “[Peter] told me that he had blurry vision in his right eye,” said Kathleen. “The way he described it to me sounded like an ocular migraine so we took him back to the hotel and went onto Animal Kingdom. We got back and he was working on his next novel. We decided to go to dinner but he was still having a slight vision problem so I drove.
“While at dinner I thought his speech was a bit slurred. He put it down to fatigue and his face always looked like that. That morning he couldn’t get his right leg to move correctly. He told us later that he had gotten up because he couldn’t sleep and tried to type and couldn’t get his hand to work correctly but he didn’t want to wake me up and alarm me. I called my mom with the laundry list of things. My mother said get him to a hospital NOW. We loaded him into the car and took him to Celebration Hospital at the recommendation of some friends.”
Today, Trek author Bob Greenberger posted a message from Kathleen, which asked for help from David’s fans. “Even though we have health insurance we have co-pays and the like,” said Kathleen. “And since this stroke fell at the end of the year, we have all the new co-pays to deal with (I can honestly see those of you who have had to deal with this nodding your heads). And there are things that the insurance company just won’t cover (more head nodding). So we are at the beginning of what is going to be a very expensive year even though we are only four days in.”
Buying David’s books will help towards paying the inevitable bills, as most writers are not, unlike Stephen King, wealthy. Many writers have to work a regular job in addition to writing. The best way to help the David family is to buy Peter’s books from Crazy 8 Press, as profits from those get to him the quickest.
Another way fans can help is by spreading the word, so that more are aware of what happened and can help.
“We do need your help to help him,” said Kathleen. “He is working very hard at getting back to all that he loves to do and we are trying to ease his mind about whatever we can ease his mind about so he can do it faster.”
Note that the Crazy 8 Press and the referring websites are loading slowly due to the volume of hits.
TrekToday joins in wishing Peter David a speedy recovery.
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Duly noted. I’ll see what I can do when I have some spare cash. There are plenty of Peter David books I’ve yet to own, so…
Dr. Chapel: “Now scanning pons area…signs of neurological trauma.”
If only we had 23rd-century medicine today. Wishing you a full and speedy recovery, Mr. David.
I’m confused… I thought the solution to healthcare was everyone having insurance… Oh, that’s right… that was just the propaganda… But, but, I thought the cost curve was supposed to be bent so we cou– Nope… Just a mandate, no improvements or savings, and certainly no fundamental changes that would reduce costs. Oh well.
As for Peter David, I wish him well! I’ve enjoyed many of his books over the years.
Wishing Peter David a speedy and healthy recovery. I enjoyed his Star Trek novels The Rift and The Disinherited.