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Support for Rick Kirk and Family

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My dad is Rick Kirk from Ripley, OK. He opened up his precision machining and welding business and auto restoration in 1980 called R.K. Machine, Inc. A few months ago he got a cut on his leg that got infected. He had been on a high dose of prednisone for over a year that severely weakened his immune system. That infection got into his blood stream and exploded throughout his body. It has since been diagnosed as the MSSA version of staph. It slowly weakened his immune system more as it hung out by his spine, eating away at the bones of his spine. Eventually the discs gave and caused part of his spine to break, which allowed the infection to get into his spinal cord. When we checked him in to the Stillwater Medical Center he had a blood pressure of 54/38 and they immediately admitted him into the ICU. Within the next 24 hours he started having trouble breathing and was losing the mobility and feeling in his legs and feet. They decided to transfer him to St. Johns Medical Center in Tulsa, OK in the neuroICU. By the time he arrived he was paralyzed from his chest down. They did emergency back surgery to repair the spinal damage and to clean out the infection. He was on a bypap after that but was still not getting enough air. His lungs started to fill up with gunk and eventually they had to put him on a ventilator to clean out his lungs and feed him through a feeding tube more easily. His status goes up and down but as of today his white blood cell count is 14,500 (which is down from 35,000 but up from 11,000 a couple of days ago) and he's still on 85% oxygen from the ventilator because he is unable to breathe well on his own. He is heavily sedated so we do not know the extent of damage there has been to his body. I have been taking care of my mom and dad's finances (we believe that my mom is suffering from a form of dementia) as well as driving myself and my mom back and forth to Tulsa. My mom receives social security benefits which I've been using to pay their bills but what that doesn't pay my dad has supplemented with cash, but he is not able to tell me at the moment where to get that cash. I do not want the bills to get so far behind that we can't catch up and I also don't want to risk their house going in to foreclosure in the meantime. It is embarrassing to admit that we need help with the income my dad has always provided and the extra money it's costing to drive back and forth to Tulsa and to get my mom groceries. I want to be able to tell my dad that everything is taken care of and ok when he wakes up, whenever that might be. I'm not sure how much is needed because I'm still trying to get a feel for how many bills there are. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The biggest thing we ask for right now, though, is your prayers for my dad. He is the backbone of this family and we need him back as soon as possible.
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  • Anonymous
    • $20
    • 7 yrs
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Organizer

Melissa West
Organizer
Stillwater, OK

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