This is not how Doug Schill planned to spend his retirement after 34 years teaching in public and private schools: on his back as a paraplegic wondering how much his limited medical policy would cover.

Schill, 67, and his wife, Judy, 68, retired from teaching in June. They were in Seoul, Korea, visiting a daughter in August, when Schill suffered an aortic aneurysm, dissection (splitting of the aorta) and what was later diagnosed as a stroke.

His Medicare and Thrivent supplemental policy didn't cover all the bills. Suddenly, career educators respected in both Charlotte and Durham were facing financial uncertainty in a retirement they had hoped would be long and active.

Friends and former students have raised $70,000 to defray medical bills. Four local fundraising efforts are under way, including a March 18 benefit at the Duke School for Children, where Schill taught for 12 years.

Despite a home equity loan taken by the Schills and a second mortgage assumed by a son, they could be facing $71,000 in out-of-pocket expenses during the next two years. And the major bills for medical care in the United States have yet to arrive.

"It's sad. What do you do?" asks Judy. "We have learned because of these incidents a tremendous amount about the medical care system in the United States. It's really kind of [lousy] unless you are very wealthy and can afford every kind of insurance available."

Health care in the United States may fade in and out of the public eye depending on the political season, but Schill's nightmare is one that could haunt any family that isn't wealthy or well-insured.

"Structurally it's a complete breakdown of the health care system," says family friend and former student Anthony Foxx, now a lawyer and a Charlotte City Councilman. "It's unfair."

Schill, a Michigan native and former Marine, was no ordinary teacher, and the response to his problems has been extraordinary.

"When I think about teachers who personify the 'open' method, Doug Schill is the first to come to mind," says Anthony Foxx, a former student who is now a lawyer and a Charlotte city councilman.

Schill's classrooms tended to be loud and active. Camping trips to the beach and Florida, three trips to presidential inaugurations and jaunts to check out local architecture were all part of life with "Doug," which is what many students call him today.

"A lot of teachers blow kids off," recalls Foxx. "But he was real tuned in. I remember talking to Doug as a friend, not a teacher."

The Schills began teaching in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in 1972. Both Schills encouraged curiosity and hands-on learning. For the 1978-79 school year, the Schills moved their four children to Boston where they earned master's degrees and exposed their children to big-city cultural amenities. Soon afterward, they moved to Hong Kong to teach at the Hong Kong International School and experience a different culture.

Four years later they returned to the U.S. and settled in Durham. Judy switched from teaching dance therapy to English as a Second Language in the public schools. Doug taught at Duke School. They both retired last June.

They flew to Korea in August with plans to return to Durham in early October and refocus their new lives. Ten days into the trip to Korea, Doug's medical problems began.

Now, the bedroom Schill shared with his wife on Malvern Road is a sickroom with a hospital bed, a small TV and a wall that has been cut out to permit direct access to a shower. Schill's voice is strong and factual as he lies on his back. Late-afternoon shafts of sunlight speckle a white sweatshirt that proclaims: "It's not an empty nest until they get their stuff out of the basement."

His wife helps wrestle him in and out of a lift three to four times a day for meals in the dining room. The process tires both of them. He spends most of his time in bed reading, watching television, keeping up with Duke men's basketball and sleeping up to 12 hours a day.

He takes up to 11 medications and has full use of his right hand while he rehabs the muscles in his left. There is no hope that he will ever walk. His twice-a-week shower "is kind of an event in itself," he jokes. An occupational therapist works with him three times a week for a total of six hours.

Judy says that had they stayed with the public school system their entire careers, they would be in a better financial position to deal with Doug's unexpected misfortune.

"Staying in place, we couldn't have stood it," she says of their stimulating and peripatetic teaching careers. "Inside your soul, inside your spirit, you cannot do the same thing."

Their lifestyle was not luxurious. "It was more of a spontaneous lifestyle, not thinking 20, 30 years down the road," she says. "It's a choice we made. In a sense we're paying for it."

Foxx says the price isn't right.

"When I match the value of my being a lawyer to the social value of a teacher, it's not even close," he says.

"... It's absolutely tragic that someone who spent their life training children to be valuable members of society should now be faced with medical bills exceeding their ability to pay."