Chris Bolek

Hi, for those who don’t know me, my name is Monica and I am the niece of Chris and Rachel Bolek. If you ever had the pleasure of interacting with Chris, you were lucky. Chris was always the light at our family functions. Always cracking jokes. We’ve been so blessed to have him.

As many might know, but for those who don’t, Chris has been having some health issues the past few months.

On November 26th, he woke up and was having weakness on the left side of his body. He was taken to Union Hospital via ambulance and was found to have a brain bleed, aka hemorrhagic stroke. He was transported by helicopter within the hour to Cleveland Clinic main campus and admitted to the neurological ICU for further treatment. It was quickly discovered he had an underlying clotting disorder and possible issues with his liver. At that point, his bleed was stable and he was able to start physical rehab while still being in the hospital. Chris and our family were optimistic and he was working hard. The next few days he began to experience seizure activity and it was found that the bleed had worsened. At that time, he was transferred back to the neuro ICU. The doctors could not understand why he was having issues and why the bleed continued, but still had hope for a good recovery. Then his mental status slowly started to diminish and he ended up requiring a feeding tube. As he continued to decline into an unresponsive state, the doctors felt it was necessary to intubate him in order to protect his airway.

With no improvement, this past Wednesday he had a procedure to biopsy his liver to see if the doctors could get more answers. After his procedure, he experienced a bleeding complication requiring him to receive a blood transfusion. With all of this, the doctors were still hopeful we would see an improvement.

This past Sunday, Christmas Eve, when the doctors rounded, Chris still had no improvement in mental status so they immediately performed another CT scan of the brain. My aunt Rachel received the devastating news that her high school sweetheart had developed two new brain bleeds and the initial one had worsened.

The doctors were no longer offering solutions to hopefully fix him but instead suggested bringing in hospice to keep him comfortable and prepare for end of life.

This coming Thursday, December 28th, the family will make the extremely difficult decision to stop all life support measures and begin hospice care.

I am asking for donations to help with both the huge amount of medical expenses and funeral costs. If you’re unable to help, please share Chris’s story and continue to pray for Chris and Rachel, their children Andrew, Alexis and Aaron, and the rest of our family during these difficult times.