Bill Desmarais

20 years ago Bill had an esophageal rupture requiring his to be rebuilt and after some time his stomach contents had moved and were compressing his lung making it hard to breathe.

The first surgery in May was to repair and move abdominal contents out of his chest - it took 7 hours and was successful and Bill was able to go home a week later.

Bill spiked a fever, was confused, and was thought to have air leak in his lungs. He was urgently admitted to Maine Medical center and then ultimately sent via ambulance back to Brigham in Boston.

He underwent a second surgery which was more extensive than we thought after discovering he had a second esophageal rupture in his lifetime. Bill had a terrible infected and landed in ICU on a ventilator with a large wide open chest wound. He remained in ICU until the 3rd surgery in 2 weeks. They closed the large chest wound and placed a feeding tube. The plan is now to allow him to rest and work on getting all drains and tubes out while feeding him through the feeding tube. When Bill is strong enough he will need a 4th surgery to reconnect and rebuild his esophagus again to be able to eat normally.

Once Bill is on the mend he is going to be required to stay locally in a hotel so he is close by if something happens and so the hospital can keep close tabs on him as he recovers. Bill has always been about helping others and could really use our help right now. Any financial help to offset hotel, food and medical costs would be greatly appreciated as his insurance will not cover any of these costs.