Brian Steigerwalt Memorial Fund

As many of you have already heard, my father has passed away on July 29, and had no life insurance policy, savings, or assets. My brothers and I are left to pay for all his medical bills and funeral expenses.

All of this was very unexpected.

We are starting a GoFundMe for my brothers and I to help with upcoming cost. As many of you know, we normally would not be asking for help. We come by this honestly since our father was the same way. But considering our situation and the fact that I have had numerous people wanting to help, I thought that this would be the best way to allow everyone to contribute to my dad and us.

I want to first start out by saying thank you for anyone taking the time to read this or donating any money. Any little bit of donation will help go a long way to help my brothers and I take care of these unexpected bills.

I would like to give you a little back story for those of you who didn’t know my father, Brian or even for those of you who did since many did not know what he was dealing with and for how long.

In 2013, my father was diagnosed with MDS (Myelodysplastic Syndrome also known as myelodysplasia). This is a type of rare blood cancer where one does not have enough healthy blood cells. There are many different types of MDS. Some types can stay mild for years and others are more serious. Our father, Brian, has been fighting with this for a long time.

They started off giving our father chemo pills that he took for 2 years to try and help slow down the process. Unfortunately, that was not effective, and his counts were still dropping. He had to get blood transfusions every 2 weeks. The next step was to get a second opinion.

We started going to Hersey Medical Center to see what they could do to help him. After driving down there every 3 weeks it was found he needed a stem cell transplant. In order to get this transplant, he had to undergo so many tests: pulmonary function tests, cat scans, bone marrow biopsy’s, tons of blood tests etc. The family was tested to see if they were a possible match for the transplant. Eventhough they were not a high enough percentage to have a successful outcome, Brian was lucky enough to find a donor through the national registry that was a perfect match! Unfortunately, my dad’s lungs were deteriorating from having COPD and the transplant would more than likely have killed him then helped him.

As time went by, he started to get worse. Our father now had to go to the hospital for a blood transfusion and/or platelets once every week - all while maintaining his full-time job at Deka. In 2020, he went on disability due to his condition, continuing to get weekly transfusions. In 2021, Brian was put on oxygen to help with his breathing. Due to covid shortages, he was unable to get a battery-operated machine to carry around. Brian was hindered by lugging around hug bottles since he needed to be on continuous oxygen. At times, this meant that he could not attend family functions or other types of events. In 2022 Brian became even sicker. He was now going for transfusions twice a week and sometimes getting 1-2 units of blood and 1 unit of platelets.

On July 20, Brian went in for another “routine” bone marrow biopsy. Because of swelling in his legs and low blood pressure, they admitted him to St. Luke’s Hospital. Tons of tests and transfusions later, we got the results back from the bone marrow test on July 25 - it showed our dad now had acute myeloid leukemia. The next step was to get him transferred to Fox Chase Cancer Center of Philadelphia so they could do more testing to determine a good treatment plan. On July 27, Brian was accepted to Fox Chase in the morning and transported via ambulance later that evening. That night we got a call that he wasn’t doing well. He was having trouble breathing. I was told to leave my phone on in case they needed to get a hold of me. The next morning, we got a call that he was getting worse, and they would have to intubate him to help him breath. We all drove to be there by his side while he continued to get transfusions. They had him on 3 different types of blood pressure medication to stabilize his blood pressure. Along with all that, we were told he developed sepsis and had pneumonia. In addition to all that medication, they were giving him a broad span of antibiotics to help with the sepsis and pneumonia. Friday morning, July 29, we were told that he was maxed out on everything they could give him and there was nothing more we could do. Our father passed away at 11:50 Friday morning with all his family there with him.

As I mentioned previously, I normally wouldn’t be asking for help. Our father was the type of person who always helped someone out who was in need, and he wanted nothing in return. He taught us to be the same. We know he touched the lives of so many people and you are all showing up now and wanting to help. If we weren’t in such a predicament, you would not be receiving this now. Right now, any little bit will help and be appreciated.