Beaver County family says help they need caring for brother with traumatic brain injury is not available
ALIQUIPPA, Pa. (KDKA) — A Beaver County family says it has run into a problem with seemingly no solutions.
A catastrophic crash several years ago left Josh Prigorac — a young, energetic teacher — with a traumatic brain injury.
The 37-year-old's family transformed into his round-the-clock caregivers, but KDKA-TV's Meghan Schiller explains why the family is now realizing there's no other help available.
"That post from last week was a last-ditch effort to like try to find an answer," said Jonathan Prigorac, Josh's brother.
An answer to a problem weighing heavily on Jonathan Prigorac and his five siblings: Who can love and care for their brother like them?
"He was a jokester. Everybody that I knew or that he knew loved being around him," Jonathan Prigorac said.
But 10 years ago while on his way to work at Moon as a special education teacher, Josh Prigorac's car was struck by the driver of a tractor-trailer. The impact left Josh Prigorac with a traumatic brain injury and the inability to care for himself.
His mother dedicated the remainder of her life to caring for him.
"My mother had Parkinson's, but telling her she had Parkinson's was not going to happen. She refused to believe she was sick until the day she died," Jonathan Prigorac said.
She recently died, and with the brothers' father recently struggling with Alzheimer's in a memory care facility, the kids feel that caregiver guilt.
"You feel guilty if you're focusing too much on your family, like your new family of my wife and child. And it's almost like it pulls me back to Josh all the time," Jonathan Prigorac said.
But the quest to find a nice facility relatively nearby for Josh Prigorac's care turned up nothing.
"We knew my mother was getting ill over a year ago," Jonathan Prigorac said. "We started getting on the phones trying to call, reach out everywhere. There's no answer."
Jonathan's wife, Olivia Prigorac, now weeds through hundreds of comments on the family's Facebook posts and email tips.
"Because of his age, he does not have a house to give, he does not have a retirement to give him, he does not have any assets," said Olivia Prigorac. "They're looking at him that he's going to be there for 50 years on Medicaid. He will not turn over a bed fast enough for them to make a profit."
To the system, the family is told that Josh is too old, too young, needs too much care, is not intellectually disabled enough. But to them, he's just Josh.
KDKA-TV's Meghan Schiller asked the family: "Do you think there are other families out there like you?"
"Yes. So our story, I'm hoping, is to help these other families. There's about 50 in my emails right now and I'm sure there are tons more," Olivia Prigorac said.
It's clear that Josh Prigorac knows what's happening, and he's hoping someone can pull through.
The family said it's so thankful for everyone who has commented and offered ideas. They're looking into each one, but so far there is no viable solution.
Message KDKA-TV's Meghan Schiller on social media if you know of a way to help with the Prigorac family or feel free to email Olivia Prigoric at livprigorac@gmail.com.
