Pamela Ringheimer’s breakthrough brain surgery may have saved her life and drawn the interest of the cable Discovery Channel, but her family is dealing with thousands of dollars in medical bills as a result and asking for help from the community.
Bills for Ringheimer’s treatment of an aneurysm have mounted to more than $100,000. Insurance is covering the majority of that, but the Ringheimer family must come up with 20 percent.
Ron Ringheimer, Mrs. Ringheimer’s husband, is a logger. She’s a homemaker.
Right now, her sister, Cynthia Wooley said, there’s “no way she can work, probably a minimum of a year.”
One year ago, Mrs. Ringheimer, 39, went to Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), where Dr. Barnwell packed the aneurysm with copper foil, a new technique for dealing with the health problem. The treatment required checkups every six months.
The first six months went well, Wooley said. After the second six months, Dr. Barnwell said the aneurysm and foil needed to be removed. He referred Mrs. Ringheimer to brain surgeon Dr. Johnny Dellashaw.
She went in for brain surgery to “clip” the aneurysm, located between her eyes, on July 16.
“In the meantime, Dr. Dellashaw was visited by the Discovery Channel,” Wooley said. “They’re having a program (probably in January) called, ‘Super Surgeries.’”
Mrs. Ringheimer agreed to allow the surgery to be filmed. The Discovery Channel followed the family in the days before, visiting the Sportsman’s Holiday Loggers Olympics, where Mr. Ringheimer competed. They filmed members of the family at a party and at the event.
Then Mrs. Ringheimer went to OHSU for surgery. During the surgery she suffered three strokes, a possible side effect of the surgery. That added to the complications in recovery.
Mrs. Ringheimer is coherent, and she can walk, Wooley said. The operation required that her right eye’s optic nerve be moved. Now she is having difficulty with the eye. The surgery also required angiograms, meaning doctors had to enter her brainstem. She is having difficulty with short-term memory and other physical side effects of the surgery.
The family has heard from Discovery Channel about the same surgery performed on a woman, who also apparently had strokes during the operation, in the Midwest, Wooley said. That woman took a year to recover and is doing well, so the family is looking at Mrs. Ringheimer’s recovery optimistically.
“We have rallied for her the whole time,” Wooley said of her family and Mr. Ringheimer’s parents. Mrs. Ringheimer’s sisters and brothers have helped out. Wooley, who works four days a week at Central Linn School District, is helping by taking Mrs. Ringheimer to therapy in Eugene.
Mrs. Ringheimer spent two days at Twin Oaks Care Center in Sweet Home then moved to River Park in Eugene. From there, she went to Sacred Heart Hospital for intensive therapy. She has since returned home.
“Her husband’s been wonderful,” Wooley said. “The kids have been wonderful.”
Mrs. Ringheimer’s children include Colton, 9, and Hunter, 8.
Mr. Ringheimer has gone back to work at Ridgeway Logging, Wooley said. His employer, Jim Melcher, “has been a saint. He’s give them several hundred dollars. He gave me $250 to buy the boys school clothes.”
“We feel like we’re blessed,” Wooley said. “It’s a gift from God that she’s alive. We have as a family taken strength in that. That’s how we deal with it.”
The family has heard many stories now of recovery, Wooley said. “We know in our hearts that she’ll come back and be the next one. She’s dealing with this really well.”
Mrs. Ringheimer has five sisters and four brothers. She is the youngest among them. She grew up in San Diego, Calif. Her sister, Mary Hudson moved to Sweet Home 30 years ago. Wooley moved to Sweet Home 27 years ago, and Mrs. Ringheimer followed about 20 years ago. Mr. Ringheimer is from the Lebanon area.
Mrs. Ringheimer was president of the PTC at Foster, active three days a week there as a volunteer. She also ran the Halloween carnival.
“She misses that,” Wooley said. “She wants to get back into ther volunteer time at the schools. That’s one of her goals.”
A community garage sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 19 and Oct. 20 at the Foster School gym to help defray medical expenses.
“We are in need of clean, usable donations of clothes, toys, tools, etc.,” Wooley said. “Clean out your garage and attic by bringing your donations.”
(Persons may bring donations to the Foster School bus garage.) tentative
About $2,200 in donations have already been deposited into a Washington Mutual account to help with costs.
“It’s been a challenge,” Wooley said. “We just feel blessed that she’s here.”