'Taking it one day at a time': Ravenna man had aneurysm before car hit house

A week after William Sprankle blacked out and drove his car into a Ravenna Township house, his wife says he is expected to survive.

Jennifer Sprankle said Monday that it's unclear how complete his recovery will be.

"He's very lucky," Jennifer Sprankle said.

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She said her husband was found to have suffered a brain aneurysm.

"He's still in the ICU. He still has some bleeding on the brain," said Sprankle.

According to an Ohio State Highway Patrol crash report, the 51-year-old Ravenna resident was traveling northbound about 10:25 p.m. July 8 on State Route 14 when his 2019 Toyota Camry went left of center and off the left side of the road, where it struck a ditch, a tree and then a house in the 7000 block of State Route 14.

EMS took Sprankle to University Hospitals Portage Medical Center.

The report does not include an explanation for what led the car to go off the road, but Ravenna Township Fire Chief David Moore said a medical issue is believed to be the cause.

Moore said there were no reported injuries to the home's occupants, but the house was "significantly damaged."

"There was a gas leak that we were able to control that was caused by the accident," said Moore. "And then, the following day, we ended up meeting the Portage County Building Department out there, and then we deemed the house inhabitable until it has some work done."

Moore said there was significant damage to the home's foundation, after the car "pushed a good part of the house a few feet."

Moore said that he isn't sure where the home's residents were staying since it was declared uninhabitable.

Jennifer Sprankle said her husband, the father of four children, was on his way to work as a forklift towmotor operator when he blacked out. While he is sore from the crash, the aneurysm is the primary concern.

She said he suffered a brain aneurysm in 2018 and had a couple of medical checkups recently because he was having headaches, but the most recent one was not diagnosed until after the crash.

Sprankle said her husband had surgery and is able to talk.

"He's got to be in ICU for 14 days. They're just watching him closely, monitoring him closely," Sprankle said, before adding, "Just at the moment, he's taking it one day at a time."

After Sprankle updated her husband's condition on Ravenna Township Fire Department post on Facebook about the crash, another poster suggested she set up a fundraiser.

Sprankle did so on GoFundMe.com, trying to raise money for medical and other incidental expenses.

As of Tuesday, $625 had been raised toward a $5,000 goal.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.