Help Sean O'Riordan Heal

This is my good friend Sean O’Riordan. He is an amazing Father, Husband, Friend, Artist, Director, and Live Event Specialist. He is a funny, kind, and selfless man.

 

Sean was hospitalized with acute diverticulitis in April 2021. Despite a diligent change in diet and lifestyle and following his care team’s treatment plan, Sean’s illness progressed over the last 7 months, finding him in excruciating pain most days. Surgery was necessary, but due to COVID-19 restrictions on elective surgeries, Sean was required to wait.

 

On Friday 11/19/21, Sean was admitted to the ER after experiencing immense and constant pain he could no longer self-manage. By Tuesday 11/23/21, he was in for urgent surgery. Months of waiting had caused his condition to become dangerous. After four hours of surgery, doctors had removed over 10 inches of Sean’s diseased colon. On 11/26/21, the day after Thanksgiving, he was sent home to recuperate.

 

Two days later, Sean developed sepsis and was rushed in for emergency surgery. There was a complication from the procedure earlier in the week.  A 3mm gap had developed in the reattached colon and his bowel was leaking into his body causing an infection. Fortunately, this was caught early and addressed, otherwise it could have been fatal.

 

Sean’s condition is currently stable, and he is in the hospital recovering from this emergency surgery, doctors plan to transition him to home care in the next day or two.

 

His doctors let him know he will need another surgery in about 3 months to reverse his colostomy and reattach his colon. Before then, he will need as much rest as possible to make sure all organs are healed. Though recovery from this future surgery is expected to take 3 to six weeks, his overall recovery from multiple surgeries and his work in regaining his strength will be ongoing. His wife Rachel, despite being disabled, will be Sean’s main at-home caregiver. She will be helped by their two teenage daughters.

 

Like myself, and some of you reading this, Sean works in the live events industry, as a Show Caller and Tech Director. I’ve worked with him, he is an amazing crew leader and he is one of the best in the business. Our industry was hit hard during the pandemic and though work was starting to come back, it was pretty sparse. Sean has had to cancel several booked events he had been hired for and he is now unavailable for work until he has recovered. Because he works as a freelancer, or independent contractor, he is ineligible for company benefits like health insurance, paid time off, or programs such as FMLA. He was really looking forward to getting back at it as the world reopened and people were coming together again for live events.

 

My friend is in the middle of an ordeal, and I want to help him as much as we can. Sean and his family really need our help and if you have the means, I ask you to please donate.

 

#HelpSeanHeal

 

 

Joe Zavaglia