MUSCATINE , Iowa - An over-the-road truck driver who has been in a coma and stranded for weeks in a Colorado hospital has received the gift his family has been praying for — a ride home to Muscatine.

George William O’Neal, 40, has been at Rose Medical Center in Denver since Aug. 4, when he fell ill with the H1N1 flu virus and other complications. He has since slipped into a coma and suffered brain damage.

His family on Sunday posted an Internet blog, www.bringgeorgehome.blogspot.com, explaining the situation and asking for help in raising $8,000 to fly him home.

By Monday afternoon, an anonymous donor had paid for O’Neal’s flight home on Grace on Wings, an Indiana-based charitable air ambulance.

It will be the volunteer charity’s 59th flight. As of press time today, O’Neal’s sister, Jennifer Smith of Brazil, Ind., didn’t know who made the donation, which covers the cost of gas and other necessities. A volunteer pilot and nurses will make the trip.

“This has been such a blessing,” Smith said.

O’Neal’s family has been suffering since he made what may be his last trip in a big rig. He has five children in Muscatine County, William, 18, Zechariah, 16, Devlin, 14, Mary, 12 and Isaac, 10.

His mother, Mary Berardi of Muscatine, is in Denver by his side. Doctors say he may not recognize her if he ever comes out of his vegetative state.

“They don’t know how long that is going to be or if he is ever going to recover, but he needs to be home where his kids can see him,” Berardi said Monday.

O’Neal became a truck driver three years ago when he started working for Wenger Truck Line Inc. of Davenport. He fell ill with a blood infection in July and was at Unity Hospital for about a week before going back to work on Aug. 3.

Berardi said O’Neal was hauling a load to Denver when he began having trouble breathing and called an ambulance on Aug. 4. Berardi said doctors in Denver told her that if she wanted to see her son she needed to get there right away.

“I grabbed two of his kids, some pillows and blankets and threw it in the car and went to Colorado,” Berardi said. “By the time we got there he was in a medically induced coma and they said he had the swine flu.”

O’Neal has since had two blood clots pass through his heart, his lungs have collapsed and he has suffered brain damage, the result of ongoing illness. 

Berardi and the kids stayed in her truck in Denver for a while but she has recently found a couple on the Internet who live five blocks from the hospital. She has been staying at their home for free. She helps them by preparing some meals.

Berardi, the three oldest children, and O’Neal rented a home in Muscatine, which they have lost since the onset of O’Neal’s illness. He used to pay the rent. Berardi is on Social Security and not able to pay all the bills. The other two children live with their mother in Conesville.

“I’m just praying that God will restore him,” Berardi said, while fighting back her emotions. “Doctors told me to consider taking him off ventilation. I just can’t do it.”

A man who answered the phone Monday at Wenger Truck Line said he is “not allowed to disclose any information about anything” regarding O’Neal and declined to give his title with the company.

Smith said she is surprised by the quick response to her family’s need and that she will  update the Web site dedicated to her brother. She added that Hospital Corp. of America is paying the entire fee for O’Neal’s transport to the airport in Denver and from the Quad City International airport to Select Specialty Hospital, a long-term care facility in Davenport.

O’Neal will be flown to Iowa on Thursday or Friday.