TONYA’S FIGHT

Hey y’all, I am Brittney, Tonya’s sister-in-law. As many of you may know Tonya’s been in the hospital since early Monday morning 6/12/23.

Brandon Lee had to call the ambulance Saturday June 10th because Tonya’s chest was hurting so they took her to Highland hospital and she was diagnosed with acid reflux and sent home…She never stopped hurting so early Monday morning June 12th he had to call 911 again and she had a stroke in the ambulance. They did a CAT scan when she arrived at Highland and this time was told she had an aneurysm in her aorta artery on top of her heart. They told my brother if they don’t fix it, she will be dead in two days… so they they did emergency open-heart surgery that took about five hours.

Brandon, her husband, was an hour away from his truck at work, then when he got to his truck it was about a 4 hour drive home to be with her.

They told Brandon they can’t believe she’s alive because anyone else that this would have happened to would have died, and their still worried about her because she’s had previous strokes.

Tuesday 6/13/23

She's still not awake, she was waking up yesterday evening but was getting mad because they had the vent tube down her throat, so they gave her more medicine for pain. Dr said this morning they can't get her oxygen up past 85-86 and they wanted it about 96. The Dr said they can temporarily paralyze her and it would help her oxygen level some but then the Dr. and Brandon would have to talk about other options.

They're talking about putting her on a Ecmo machine which is a small hose in the side of her neck and comes out her groin to help oxygenate her blood. She has a lot of fluid on her lungs, and they said they could not give her medicine for that because it would start shutting down other organs.

They did end up moving her from Highland to WK North and doing the procedure to get the Ecmo…after they did this her oxygen is at 98-100%!!!!

Wednesday 6/14/23

They told Brandon the blood in her heart was only going from side to side and not out of the top valve like it should be so that is the reason why she had fluid on her lungs and was not getting any oxygen on her own… They said they needed to do an echo to see what was going on for sure. They came back and said she has a hole in the bottom of her heart that has probably been there a long time and probably what caused her to have a aneurysm in 2020 (which by miracle the bleeding on her brain from that stopped the next day )

Thursday 6/15/23

The Dr. has decided to airlift Tonya to a hospital in Houston to have the hole in the bottom of her heart fixed.

The doctors did tell Brandon he is going to have to take off for two months or more to be with her 24/7. As many of you may know they have three children at home and bills don’t stop. Brandons work is not going to pay him for this time off, so anything you could donate would be very appreciated. Brandon and the kids are going to have to stay in a hotel in Houston while they’re keeping her there so of course that could be costly. If you can’t donate please just pray for Tonya, her husband, their children and the rest of their family, as this is a total shock to us all and we’re all devastated. Thank y’all so much and I’ll give updates here as soon as we get them!