Jesse & Chris Smith & Children
Donation protected
Jesse Smith is in a coma in the ICU at the Saint George, UT Intermountain Hospital due to a serious brain injury. His beautiful family is struggling emotionally and financially to deal with this unexpected tradgedy. Please read his story and consider donating.
Jesse works for my husband Steve and I as a Production Manager, and has always been a dependable, hard working employee, as well as a good friend. He is a devoted husband to his wife Christine, and a father to his two sweet little girls, Adeline Rose and Amelie Rion, who love and adore their daddy.
Jesse had been complaining of a toothache for a couple weeks, and had set up an appointment to get a root canal done. When his pain increased suddenly and intensely on the morning of Friday, March 31st, he thought it best to just have the tooth pulled, since his root canal wasn’t scheduled for another few days. He said that he was in massive pain, and could not wait any longer. His pain seemed to be increasing by the minute, and he began to vomit almost uncontrollably. I called my dentist and set up an emergency consultation, in hopes of saving the tooth, and my husband drove him to the appointment.
Once there, Jesse collapsed in the parking lot. His legs went limp, and Steve struggled to lift him up off the ground. Another man came by and helped Steve carry Jesse into the dentist’s office. Shortly after taking X-rays, Jesse was in so much pain and had physically deteriorated to the point that he could not follow instructions or cooperate with the dentist. The dentist urged Steve to take Jesse to the emergency room.
Upon arriving at the emergency room, Jesse’s pain intensified, and he began to complain of excruciating pressure in his head. The emergency room administered pain medicine and took him back for a cat scan, informing Steve that it would be about 5 minutes before they would have more information. 5 minutes turned into 30 minutes, and during this time, Jesse’s wife, Christine arrived.
The emergency room physician finally returned, and informed Steve and Christine that they had discovered a cyst in Jesse’s brain, which was causing an excess buildup of cerebrospinal fluid, and that they had to perform emergency surgery to insert a shunt to release the pressure. Sometime during this process Jesse had slipped into a coma. The doctor’s informed Steve that Jesse had been within minutes of dying.
Steve asked if the tooth had abscessed and somehow set the events into motion, but the doctors informed him this was not the case, stating that the abscessed tooth and the cyst had nothing to do with each other. Jesse’s wife was understandably in complete and utter shock and disbelief. She remarked to Steve, “I don’t understand, I sent my husband off to work this morning with a toothache…”
As the updates poured in over the next couple of days, it became clear that Jesse’s situation was dire. He had experienced massive trauma to his brain due to the swelling. More importantly and devastatingly, the excess fluid had also caused damage to his brain stem. This caused Jesse to enter a state of decerebrate posturing. The reversibility of this state is considered to be very critical and hardly reversible, and indicates severe damage to the brain and brain stem. The hospital’s neurosurgeons informed us that Jesse’s situation was grave and his chances of any sort of recovery were slim to none. The damage to his brain was assessed as “global.”
In the last 24 hours the doctors have presented Chris with some very difficult choices, asking her to base her decisions in the coming days on Jesse’s desires, and whether or not he would want to remain in this state, if things do not improve.
Jesse and Chris do not have medical insurance, and Chris has not been able to work since the day that Jesse was admitted to the hospital. Chris is paying for every meal out, and she and her girls are staying in a hotel-like room provided by the hospital, which is costing her additional money. She can barely hold on emotionally, and yet she must remain strong for Jesse and keep hope alive in herself and her little girls while they face a seemingly insurmountable and growing hospital bill as well as mounting bills at home.
I created this gofundme page in the hopes that we can help ease Christine’s suffering, if only financially, so that she can concentrate on herself and her family. All proceeds will go to Chris, and she will be able to decide where to apply the funds.
Please consider contributing to this wonderful and deserving family in need. Thank you so much for your generosity. I welcome any and all questions regarding this matter.
Thank you,
Kathy Jensen
Jesse works for my husband Steve and I as a Production Manager, and has always been a dependable, hard working employee, as well as a good friend. He is a devoted husband to his wife Christine, and a father to his two sweet little girls, Adeline Rose and Amelie Rion, who love and adore their daddy.
Jesse had been complaining of a toothache for a couple weeks, and had set up an appointment to get a root canal done. When his pain increased suddenly and intensely on the morning of Friday, March 31st, he thought it best to just have the tooth pulled, since his root canal wasn’t scheduled for another few days. He said that he was in massive pain, and could not wait any longer. His pain seemed to be increasing by the minute, and he began to vomit almost uncontrollably. I called my dentist and set up an emergency consultation, in hopes of saving the tooth, and my husband drove him to the appointment.
Once there, Jesse collapsed in the parking lot. His legs went limp, and Steve struggled to lift him up off the ground. Another man came by and helped Steve carry Jesse into the dentist’s office. Shortly after taking X-rays, Jesse was in so much pain and had physically deteriorated to the point that he could not follow instructions or cooperate with the dentist. The dentist urged Steve to take Jesse to the emergency room.
Upon arriving at the emergency room, Jesse’s pain intensified, and he began to complain of excruciating pressure in his head. The emergency room administered pain medicine and took him back for a cat scan, informing Steve that it would be about 5 minutes before they would have more information. 5 minutes turned into 30 minutes, and during this time, Jesse’s wife, Christine arrived.
The emergency room physician finally returned, and informed Steve and Christine that they had discovered a cyst in Jesse’s brain, which was causing an excess buildup of cerebrospinal fluid, and that they had to perform emergency surgery to insert a shunt to release the pressure. Sometime during this process Jesse had slipped into a coma. The doctor’s informed Steve that Jesse had been within minutes of dying.
Steve asked if the tooth had abscessed and somehow set the events into motion, but the doctors informed him this was not the case, stating that the abscessed tooth and the cyst had nothing to do with each other. Jesse’s wife was understandably in complete and utter shock and disbelief. She remarked to Steve, “I don’t understand, I sent my husband off to work this morning with a toothache…”
As the updates poured in over the next couple of days, it became clear that Jesse’s situation was dire. He had experienced massive trauma to his brain due to the swelling. More importantly and devastatingly, the excess fluid had also caused damage to his brain stem. This caused Jesse to enter a state of decerebrate posturing. The reversibility of this state is considered to be very critical and hardly reversible, and indicates severe damage to the brain and brain stem. The hospital’s neurosurgeons informed us that Jesse’s situation was grave and his chances of any sort of recovery were slim to none. The damage to his brain was assessed as “global.”
In the last 24 hours the doctors have presented Chris with some very difficult choices, asking her to base her decisions in the coming days on Jesse’s desires, and whether or not he would want to remain in this state, if things do not improve.
Jesse and Chris do not have medical insurance, and Chris has not been able to work since the day that Jesse was admitted to the hospital. Chris is paying for every meal out, and she and her girls are staying in a hotel-like room provided by the hospital, which is costing her additional money. She can barely hold on emotionally, and yet she must remain strong for Jesse and keep hope alive in herself and her little girls while they face a seemingly insurmountable and growing hospital bill as well as mounting bills at home.
I created this gofundme page in the hopes that we can help ease Christine’s suffering, if only financially, so that she can concentrate on herself and her family. All proceeds will go to Chris, and she will be able to decide where to apply the funds.
Please consider contributing to this wonderful and deserving family in need. Thank you so much for your generosity. I welcome any and all questions regarding this matter.
Thank you,
Kathy Jensen
Organizer and beneficiary
Katherine Bagley Jensen
Organizer
Hurricane, UT
Christine Frankini Smith
Beneficiary
Inspired to help? Start a fundraiser for someone you know
