LewisGale Medical Center colleagues provide holiday joy for injured mail carrier and his family
With generosity in their hearts, the facility's rehab team ensured Craig "Tony" Musil, his wife and child have presents to open on Christmas Day.
Friday, Sept. 27, is a day Kara Musil will never forget.
As heavy wind and rain from Hurricane Helene swept across the East Coast, Musil’s husband was in his postal truck delivering mail in Roanoke when a tree fell on the vehicle. The impact pinned Craig “Tony” Musil inside the mail truck and broke his neck.
Paralyzed in the accident, the Salem, Virginia husband and father is receiving care at LewisGale Medical Center’s inpatient rehab facility. Early on, hospital colleagues embraced the couple, their 5-year-old daughter, and a baby girl due in February, as family.
Doing what they could for the Musils became all the more important for hospital staff after learning Kara and Tony had lost a 2-year-old son last year to a rare genetic condition.
“This family has been through more in the last two years than most will experience in a lifetime,” said Elise Manning, director of LewisGale Medical Center’s rehabilitation program. “We wanted to help.”
As the primary provider, Tony Musil often worked two to three jobs to support his growing family. Knowing the financial strain that the couple was facing, the rehab team devised a plan to ensure the Musils were able to enjoy the holiday as a family.
“This event has really impacted their ability to provide for their family, and that really spoke to the hearts of our therapists, our nurses, and the rest of our staff who wanted to contribute and make sure they were able to have a good Christmas despite everything they’re going through,” Manning said.
Finding a holiday tree for Musil’s hospital room was important to his wife and became the rehab team’s first priority. Working with colleagues throughout the hospital, they found an artificial tree that met the hospital’s fire code. With ornaments donated by colleagues, the Musil’s daughter, Karleigh, decorated the tree as her father watched.
“If we didn’t have the tree, our daughter wouldn’t have had one to decorate, but we were able to keep this Christmas tradition,” Kara Musil said. “The holidays are about family, and especially for me, just being able to know that he can still be part of this with our daughter.”
With generosity in their hearts, the rehab team and others throughout the hospital collected over $2,000 in cash and gifts to ensure the family will have presents to open on Christmas day. Over the weeks, Kara Musil developed a special bond with the rehab team and several of the staff she’s closest with recently joined her to wrap presents.
“With all that’s happened, our team has felt a strong desire to help and support them,” Manning said. “And perhaps most importantly, to ensure their daughter will be able to enjoy Christmas and Santa with her father. That’s what the season is about.”