HOUSTON – The Korean War -- it's been called America's forgotten war, but for 75-year-old Robert Taylor it's impossible to forget. As an Army foot soldier, Taylor suffered a near fatal head injury when he got into a brutal fight for survival with a soldier from the other side, getting his head smashed in with the butt of a rifle, an injury that has caused Taylor painful seizures his entire life.
Now, five decades later, after suffering a massive stroke last November, Robert and his wife, Linda, have been trapped in Houston for more than a year, unable to return to their home and family in Bristol, Tennessee -- all because they couldn't afford a $10,000 medical transport in an ambulance to get Robert back home.
"It sounds like an old cliché, but it's been like hell for us here," Linda said. "I have no help here to care for my husband and all our family is back home in Bristol."
When Robert Taylor's wife asked the Veterans Administration for help getting a transport for her husband, she was told she couldn't get one because she had not taken her husband to the VA hospital when he first suffered the stroke.
With nowhere else to turn, Linda Taylor called Local 2 News for help to get her husband back home.
That's when Local 2's Bill Spencer went to work trying to find an ambulance service willing to help this brave veteran. It took more than a month and too many phone calls to count, but Spencer finally found the folks at Abingdon Ambulance Service in Abingdon, Virginia.
Through an incredible act of generosity, they agreed to transport Robert Taylor all the way from Houston back to Bristol -- an 18-hour ride with three trained paramedics by his side the entire time -- and absolutely free.
"We can be a blessing to this family, we have the ability, we have the resources, and it's the right thing to do for any veteran who has served this country," said Keith Martin, of Abingdon Ambulance Service.
In addition to the medical transport, a special GoFundMe account was set up to raise money for the Taylors.
After Local 2 News called loyal viewers to donate, you did just that. In fact, through those donations Local 2 raised more than $14,000 in a matter of weeks for the Taylor family.
Now, all that money is going to Robert Taylor and his family to help save their house in Bristol from foreclosure and to help make their home handicap accessible -- something Robert will need in order to live there again.
Robert Taylor was loaded onto a special "American Heroes" painted ambulance Monday bound for Bristol, Tennessee -- all just in time to get the brave American veteran back home to celebrate Thanksgiving.