{"id":155695,"date":"2026-02-14T17:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155695\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T17:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T17:44:09","slug":"tampa-mom-shares-journey-caring-for-injured-veteran-son-local-help-available-to-avoid-caregiving-burnout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155695\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa mom shares journey caring for injured veteran son, local help available to avoid caregiving burnout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/9lwa7e67llx7dax8.jpg\" alt=\"A mother's love through caregiving\" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/video\/fmc-je4tkzutukm39x34\" data-v-4292be72=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A mother&#8217;s love through caregiving<\/a> <\/p>\n<p data-v-4292be72=\"\">Valentine\u2019s Day weekend usually comes with flowers and dinner plans. For many families, love shows up differently: in hospital rooms, therapy appointments and the quiet work of caregiving. FOX 13&#8217;s Matthew McClellan reports.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">TAMPA, Fla. &#8211; Valentine\u2019s Day weekend usually comes with flowers and dinner plans. For many families, love shows up differently: in hospital rooms, therapy appointments and the quiet work of caregiving.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Stacey Hawley says her son left for boot camp in 2013 and served about eight years, including two combat tours in Afghanistan. After his second deployment (2017 into early 2018), she says he was seriously injured in a motorcycle crash.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">MORE NEWS: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/news\/florida-homebuyers-bill-employers-payments-costs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Florida first-time homebuyers: New bill would require employers to assist with down payments, closing costs<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Hawley describes getting a call around 4 a.m. and rushing to the hospital, where she says a doctor told her he had less than a 1% chance of surviving the night. Hawley later sums up the ongoing reality of caregiving simply: &#8220;Every day is a struggle.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">Senior Connection Center encourages caregivers to reach out before they hit a breaking point. The organization\u2019s Elder Helpline can help people figure out next steps, sort through options and connect to local resources.<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\">For eligible <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/military\/veterans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">veterans<\/a>, one option families may hear about is Veteran-Directed Care (VDC). It&#8217;s a VA program designed to help veterans receive needed home and community-based services in a consumer-directed way, including assistance with daily activities, and it can be used when a caregiver is experiencing burden.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-2899190a=\"\">What you can do:<\/p>\n<p data-v-2899190a=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/seniorconnectioncenter.org\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Senior Connection Center\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0Elder Helpline\u00a0can be reached at 1-800-963-5337\u00a0(1-800-96-ELDER).<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: Nathaniel Heathprice\u2019s timeline and Stacey Hawley\u2019s quote come from an interview transcript provided for the story. Senior Connection Center contact information comes from the organization\u2019s website. Information about the VA\u2019s Veteran-Directed Care program comes from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\/tampa\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/military\/veterans\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-2899190a=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mother&#8217;s love through caregiving Valentine\u2019s Day weekend usually comes with flowers and dinner plans. For many families,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,629,2583,115,135,137,136,628,3393],"class_list":{"0":"post-155695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-fl","9":"tag-hillsborough","10":"tag-military","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tampa","13":"tag-tampa-headlines","14":"tag-tampa-news","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-veterans"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}