John's Journey to Recovery

 

Hello Friends and Family,

 

This is a summary of John's Journey to Recovery which has totaled 73 days as of January 17, 2022. His journey continues.

 

In late October 2021, John contracted COVID-19 and progressively got worse until he was hospitalized on November 6, 2021. He was found unresponsive in his room with oxygen levels at 38 and blood sugar levels of 500. The EMTs and ER doctors were able to revive him to where he became coherent. John was placed in quarantine due to COVID-19 in the ICU unit of Oak Hill Hospital and seemed to be doing well with oxygen levels maintained in the 90s. Hospital staff were encouraged that John could be home soon. Then, John had 2 strokes, back-to-back, and they had to intubate him. COVID-19 makes the blood sticky which caused formation of the blood clots.

 

After John's second stroke that he sustained during his stay at Oak Hill Hospital, Oak Hill transported him to Bayonet Regional Hospital, a trauma hospital, for possible brain surgery, as the Cat Scan showed a blood clot lodged in the right side of his brain. After two days at Bayonet Regional, the neurosurgeon determined John was not surgical, declared him brain-dead, and transported him back to Oak Hill Hospital in a comatose state.

 

John was in a coma for several weeks due to the strokes at Oak Hill Hospital. The doctors did a tracheotomy to give him time to awaken from the coma. John did awaken and began recognizing his family as he daily became more aware. At Oak Hill Hospital, John endured four tracheotomies due to needing a new hose or the wrong placement of the surgical site which needed to be re-done. John also endured several bronchoscopies while there, with one taking three hours. While at Oak Hill Hospital, John coded several times, but was brought back to us.

 

John was transferred to Tampa General Hospital on December 18, 2021, where he underwent several more bronchoscopies and another trach procedure. At Tampa General, he was removed from the ventilator, passed the "trach test" and is currently waiting to have his trach removed soon. He was at Tampa General until January 15, 2022, when he was transferred to a rehab facility. At the rehab facility, they removed his trach, without proper monitoring/suctioning, causing John to go into respiratory distress. 911 was called and he was, again, transported to yet another hospital - St Joseph's.

He remained at St. Joseph's Hospital for several days and was diagnosed with pneumonia. He was put back on the ventilator for a short time, to oxygenate his lungs. They also re-installed his trach.  He was just discharged today (January 24, 2022) and is being transported to Advent Hospital and Rehab so he can, once again, work on re-learning motor skills and gaining his strength back. We do not know how long he will be at the rehab facility but expect it to be several weeks to months until he is able to strengthen and be released to go home.

John is a father and a stepfather. He has a son with special needs from autism. His children have been having a difficult time without their dad present. He is unable to provide for them as he would like, during this time. We anticipate John will have very large hospital bills coming due for his share of what the health insurance will not pay. He is also in rehab and those bills will also add to the already hefty hospital bills (total of 4 hospitals, 2 rehabs, and several ambulance transports.)  We anticipate John may need home health rehab assistance once he is released to go home, along with medications, co-pays, and doctor visits.

 

John is truly one of the good ones. He is an amazing person with a tender, kind heart and a love for people. He is a hard-working and wonderful father to his children. This has been a very difficult, heart-wrenching journey for him and the family. We are hoping to raise money to assist him with the burden of the expected bills and future medical visits, medications, rehab, etc., that are sure to add worry to an already overwhelming journey. We thank you and appreciate all of you for your consideration in giving to this cause in helping relieve John's responsibility to the already mounting bills and expenses.