Cassie - single mother of 5, currently bedbound

Update 4 Oct 2023 - Wed

Hello everyone,

Cassie, her friends, and I are blown away by the support and generosity of all of you! Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

It is now school holidays and all Cassie's children are home, enjoying time with their aunty.

There is still no improvement in Cassie's condition. However, we are remaining positive and cheering her on.

Once again, thank you all for your kindness and love.

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Hello, I'm Jolene and I'm starting this fundraiser for my friend Cassie.

Cassie is a mother of 5 (super cute and amazing) children aged 5 to 13.

This is the quick, condensed version of her story. You can read the longer version below :)

Cassie is now paralysed from her neck down, on her right side of the body following a bad anaesthetic reaction on Monday (25 sep).

As she has run out of sick leave, she is now unable to meet rent ($700/wk), bills and groceries.

I am trying to raise enough for 2 months of rent, plus a little more for her children's care and food.

Thank you for your kindness and generosity in helping this family of 6. Every single cent is appreciated.

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History:

In the recent months, Cassie had a major operation to correct a medical issue. 3 days after she was sent home, she developed chest pains and presented into the emergency department. They misdiagnosed her as having referred pain from the gas used in her surgery (trapped under her diaphragm) and sent her home.

It wasn't till she accessed her My Health Records and checked her CT scan results that she realized she had not one, but two pulmonary embolisms. She presented back into ED - she was then given a higher dose of anticoagulants. It was also the that they found that the clots had doubled in sizes. She was sent home.

2 days later, she started to haemorrhage badly. She however stayed home with her children and didn't call the ambulance until the morning when her children were safe at school.

Due to the higher dose of anticoagulants, her suture wounds had started to bleed.

The hospital eventually sent her home when the bleeding subsided. Unfortunately, the bleeding started back up again and this whole process was repeated 2 more times!

Finally on Monday (25 sep), they brought Cass back into theatre to examine the bleeding source under general anesthesia.

This is when things went really awry.

Cass' body responded badly to the anaesthetic and she could not be woken up for 8 hours, could not maintain her own airway and had to be intubated.

When she finally awoke, she could not move her right side from the neck down. She is now bed bound in hospital with no end in sight on when she can return home to her children. There are no answers at the moment and doctors are running more diagnostic tests.

Cassie has exhausted her sick leave at work for the year and thus, is now unable to make rent, nor buy food for her children. She is also requiring babysitters to watch over her little ones while she is in hospital.

I am trying to raise enough to cover two months rent for this family plus some to cover for food and bills as well as care for her children. I reckon Cassie will require quite a lot of support while she recuperates.

Cass has been a wonderful friend to many of us and of course, to my family and me. She has been kind and generous and not to mention, supportive, when I needed it most.

Any little bit counts and your kindness will definitely be heartfelt.