As state eyes deficit, New York's popular home care program fears cuts

MALTA — When surgery to remove a deadly tumor in John Shelffo’s brain caused him to suffer a stroke and brain swelling so severe he needed half his skull sawed off, the then-22-year-old was left with an array of devastating disabilities.

He developed ataxia, which caused him to lose movement in his entire left side and much of the rest of his body. He couldn’t walk, he couldn’t feed himself, he couldn’t bathe himself or go to the bathroom alone. He lost vision in one eye, hearing in one ear, and had difficulty talking.

“Physically, he might be a mess,” his father Jim Shelffo said recently from inside their Malta home. “But cognitively, he’s 100 percent there. He’s the same kid as before.”

Which is why, Shelffo explained, it was so devastating for the family to put him in a nursing home after his time in the hospital. He was there for seven months, with no stimulation but for a tiny TV he couldn’t see and one hour a day spent outside his room in therapy.

“The rest of the time he was just sitting in his room doing absolutely nothing,” Jim said….

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/In-difficult-budget-year-NY-s-popular-home-care-15020996.php