Peace for Chris

Our purpose for this fundraiser is to support Christine as we make the final arrangements for my father's medical expenses. In January of 2011, Chris was taken to ICU at Hermann Memorial for a severe sinus infection, pneumonia, and MRSA. These were discovered after a CAT scan and caused him to have his first cardiac arrest. He spent about 3 weeks in a coma in the hospital and we were uncertain of his expected outcome. At the same time, about a week into his hospital stay, Christine ended up in the hospital for 2 weeks with pneumonia. On January 29th, we had received a phone call that Chris had made a turn for the best. In February he was moved to Nexus Rehabilitation Acute Care Hospital. He was able to come home later in April of 2011. Because of the cardiac arrest, he lost his eyesight completely in one eye and partially in the other. While in care, he began battling kidney failure along with his ongoing condition of diabetes and MRSA. He also had gastroparesis, a condition that caused paralysis of his stomach causing him difficulty to have a controlled diet, which lead to his gallbladder being removed and lessening his kidney functions.  In February of 2015, he was let go from his job as a manager of Smith RV Rentals due to his health conditions and inability to see. Later that year, he was started on dialysis at three times a week.  Christine has worked hard at keeping the family, house, four-legged and finned loved ones under the same roof, but fell on difficult times when she lost her job in April of 2015. Since then, she has had jobs on and off, but they were difficult to keep with the challenges of appointments with Chris and her autistic son, Joshua.  Chris' hospital visits became more frequent from 2015 to 2017, and on May 24th 2017, Chris had his second cardiac arrest while at home. He had lost oxygen to his brain for over 5 minutes, which generally is the amount of time that lapses before neurological damage occurs. He was transported to Memorial Hermann ICU. Because of protocol, we were unable to do any testing to determine neurological damage for three days following. After the three days were passed, he was showing great improvement with motor functions of following commands and the desire to speak, even with a ventilation tube. The first time we tried removing the ventilation tube he only lasted three minutes. He was not strong enough to breathe on his own and because of secondary pneumonia, he has lost muscle strength in order to help clear his airways to breathe. The second time we tried removing the ventilation tube, he lasted about 24 hours before he was placed back on. His body was not strong enough to not have supported breathing. He indicated that he did not want to have a tracheotomy. After meeting with a Care Team, we discovered that his quality of life had diminished greatly and his chance of recovery was unlikely. Knowing that he loved his family and did not want to suffer anymore, we respected his wishes and Chris passed on June 7th, 2017. Now Christine is trying to meet the medical expenses which have piled up over this time period. Anything is appreciated and helpful in this time of need.  Thank you. Brittany A Smith